Cracking and fatigue

Corrosion fatigue, therefore, is a special case of stress-corrosion cracking and fatigue failure. Figure 4-451 shows an example of pipe failures due to corrosion fatigue. Corrosion fatigue can be prevented or reduced by ... 

Subcritical Crack Growth Stress Corrosion Cracking and Fatigue Crack Growth (Phenomenology)... 

L.W. Tsay, Y.C. Chen, S.L.I. Chen, Sulfide stress corrosion cracking and fatigue crack growth of welded TMCP API 5 L X65 pipe-line steel, Int. J. Fatigue 23 (2001) 103-113. 

Finally, in order for an underground cable to be cost effective, it should have a life expectancy of 30 to 40 years. Studies of the effects of environmental stress cracking and fatigue failure on the life of dielectric tapes are being conducted. 

Consider reduction in cost of welding and danger of stress corrosion cracking and fatigue corrosion. 

Shear Horizontal (SH) waves generated by Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT) have been used for sizing fatigue cracks and machined notches in steels by Time-of-Flight Diffraction (TOED) method. The used EMATs have been Phased Array-Probes and have been operated by State-of-the-art PC based phased array systems. Test and system parameters have been optimised to maximise defect detection and signal processing methods have been applied to improve accuracy in the transit time measurements. 

The life of a component, as measured in a fatigue test, is the number of cycles needed to initiate a crack and cause it to propagate across the wall until it intersects the outside surface or until fast fracture intervenes. 

The material in use as of the mid-1990s in these components is HDPE, a linear polymer which is tough, resiUent, ductile, wear resistant, and has low friction (see Olefin polymers, polyethylene). Polymers are prone to both creep and fatigue (stress) cracking. Moreover, HDPE has a modulus of elasticity that is only one-tenth that of the bone, thus it increases the level of stress transmitted to the cement, thereby increasing the potential for cement mantle failure. When the acetabular HDPE cup is backed by metal, it stiffens the HDPE cup. This results in function similar to that of natural subchondral bone. Metal backing has become standard on acetabular cups. 

Variable nozzles produce a series of jets of gas entering the rotor, and these impulses add up to form a frequency equal to the blade-passing frequency the number of revolutions per second multiplied by the number of nozzle vanes, which is of the order of thousands of cycles per second. Frequently the rotor will resonate at this frequency, and if it does, it will be fatigued and crack and break up thus these frequencies must be avoided, and the manufac turer should be asked to supply information to the customer on this subject. 

Figure 15.18 Examples of crack patterns due to stress-corrosion cracking and corrosion fatigue in butt welds. (Reprinted with permission from Helmut Thielsch, Defects and Failures in Pressure Vessels and Piping, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1965.)...

But cracks can form, and grow slowly, at loads lower than this, if either the stress is cycled or if the environment surrounding the structure is corrosive (most are). The first process of slow crack growth - fatigue - is the subject of this chapter. The second -corrosion - is discussed later, in Chapters 21 to 24. 

Case studies in fast fracture and fatigue failure 165 Integration gives the number of cycles to grow the crack from to 02 ... 

Because oxides are usually quite brittle at the temperatures encountered on a turbine blade surface, they can crack, especially when the temperature of the blade changes and differential thermal contraction and expansion stresses are set up between alloy and oxide. These can act as ideal nucleation centres for thermal fatigue cracks and, because oxide layers in nickel alloys are stuck well to the underlying alloy (they would be useless if they were not), the crack can spread into the alloy itself (Fig. 22.3). The properties of the oxide film are thus very important in affecting the fatigue properties of the whole component. 

Fig. 28.6. Fatigue data for welded joints in clean air. The class given to a weld depends critically on the weld detail and the loading direction. Classes B and C must be free from cracks and must be ground flush with the surface to remove stress concentrations. These conditions ore rarely met in practice, and most welds used in general construction hove comparatively poor fatigue properties.

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