Papers by Author: Jaroslav Pokluda

Abstract: The effect of surface roughness of virgin specimens (prior roughness) made of low-alloyed high strength steel on their fatigue life after the case-hardening treatment was studied by rotating bending tests of virgin and nitrided samples. In a whole range of S-N curves, the fatigue strength of virgin samples after lathe-turning machining (high roughness) was naturally much higher than that of samples after grinding (low roughness). As expected, the fatigue strength of nitrided specimens was higher than that of virgin samples when averaged through the whole fatigue life range. When distinguishing the rough and smooth nitrided samples, the low-cycle fatigue strength of rough samples revealed to be lower than that of the smooth ones and vice a versa in the high-cycle region. This could be explained by the fact that, in the low cycle region, the cracks in the rough samples nucleated from deep surface defects while, in the smooth specimens, they nucleated from shallow defects (or as fish eyes) which prolonged their initiation stage. Almost all cracks in the high cycle region initiated as fish-eyes but the extent of nitrided layers in the rough specimens was slightly higher than that in the smooth specimens. Therefore, the fish-eye centers were shifted further to the interior of the rough specimens which increased their fatigue life.

Abstract: The critical length a_Ic of a mode I crack that corresponds to a vanishing of the influence of the notch stress concentration can be approximately expressed by a formula reported by Lefort. This study aimed to generalize his approach to shear mode cracks by finding a criterion for a statistical compatibility of formulae for critical lengths of cracks. It revealed that the Lefort ́s formula describes the critical crack length a_Ic at which the relative level of the notch effect on the mode I SIF is less than 1%. Based on this criterion, a mathematically similar formula for the critical length a_IIIc was found. A part of this study was also a development of a transformation procedure suitable for fitting the obtained SIF data by simple analytical formulae and for clear related illustrative plots of results.

Abstract: The influence of the notch geometry on the stress intensity factor at the front of the emanating cracks is well known for the opening loading mode. The critical length of the crack corresponding to a vanishing of the influence of the notch stress concentration can be approximately expressed by the formula a_I,c = 0.5ρ(d/ρ)^1/3, where d and ρ are the depth and radius of the notch, respectively. The aim of the paper was to find out if this formula could be, at least nearly, applicable also to the case of shear mode loading. The related numerical calculations for mode II and III loading were performed using the ANSYS code for various combinations of notch depths and crack lengths in a cylindrical specimen with a circumferential U-notch. The results revealed that, for mode II loading, the critical length was much higher than that predicted by the formula for mode I loading. On the other hand, the critical lengths for mode I and mode III were found to be nearly equal.

Abstract: In spite of the fact that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Intracoil and s.m.a.r.t Nitinol stents for superficial femoral artery (SFA), some alternative designs of Nitinol stents are being implanted today, representing the off-label use of the devices. Among the currently stents used for the SFA, s.m.a.r.t and Intracoil stents show the most desirable long-term results but it is not understood why. In the present work, delivery of the s.m.a.r.t and Intracoil Nitinol stents and their release inside a stenotic point of the artery was simulated by FE implemented SMA model using a creative manual controlled method. The influence of the stent design on the stent–vessel interactions and stress state within the stent material after completion of the deployment was revealed. It was found that the Intracoil stent shall be more successful in eliminating the stenosis and less prone to fatigue failure, even though it had less thickness and less mean coil diameter.

Abstract: This work is focused on experimental study of micromechanisms of mode II and mode III fatigue cracks in metallic materials in the near-threshold regime. The resistance to fatigue crack growth can be divided to an intrinsic component (ahead of the crack tip) and an extrinsic component (shielding, closure), which is significantly higher than the intrinsic one. Fracture surfaces from the Ti6Al4V alloy and pure zirconium were observed in three dimensions. Experiments were conducted using a special device for simultaneous crack loading in modes II and III. Additionally, pure mode II and pure mode III experiments were done using CTS and torsion specimens, respectively. At the beginning of all experiments, crack closure was eliminated due to precracks generated under cyclic compressive loading. A common mechanism of local mode II advances was observed in both modes II and III. The results were similar to those of pure titanium. The hcp metals exhibit a transition behaviour between materials with coplanar shear-mode crack propagation and materials with a high tendency to deflect to the opening mode I.

Abstract: Determination of fatigue crack growth characteristics under shear-mode loading is a rather complicated problem. To increase an efficiency and precision of such testing, special specimens enabling simultaneous propagation of shear cracks under II, III and II+III loading modes started to be used rather recently. However, a description of crack growth rate in terms of appropriate fracture mechanics quantities demands a precise assessment of plastic zone size under various shear-mode loading levels. This contribution is focused on the numerical elasto-plastic analysis of stress-strain field at the crack tip in specimens made of a pure polycrystalline (ARMCO) iron loaded by mixed mode II+III. The dependence of plastic zone size on the J-integral value described the wide region of loading. The results reveal that formixed mode II+III the small scale yielding conditions are fulfilled in the region where plastic zone size is smaller than 1/10 of the total crack length.

Abstract: The paper is dedicated to experiments on near-threshold fatigue cracks under mixed-mode II+III in the ARMCO iron. The mixed mode crack growth was described using an equivalent factor ΔJeff,eq=(1-α)ΔJeff,eqII+αΔJeff,eqIII. The most appropriate description was found for α = 0.67 indicating that the mode III component should be more efficient than that of the mode II which is in contradiction of a ΔK_eq–based analysis. This result shows that, unlike in the austenitic steel, the difference in the efficiency of modes II and III in the ARMCO iron is very small.

Abstract: Determination of fatigue crack growth characteristics under shear-mode loading is a rather complicated problem. To increase an efficiency and precision of such testing, special specimens enabling simultaneous propagation of shear cracks under II, III and II+III loading modes started to be used rather recently. K-calibration of these specimens was performed and, after unique pre-crack and heat-treatment procedures, effective thresholds in several metallic materials could be measured. However, a description of crack growth rate in terms of appropriate fracture mechanics quantities demands a precise assessment of plastic zone size under various shear-mode loading levels. This contribution is focused on the numerical elasto-plastic analysis of stress-strain field at the crack tip in specimens made of a pure polycrystalline (ARMCO) iron. The results reveal that the small scale yielding conditions are fulfilled in the near-threshold region. Starting from ΔK values approximately two times higher than the threshold, however, the ΔK_J or ΔJ approach should already be utilized. Probably the most interesting result of the analysis lies in a simple procedure that enables us to separate individual loading components ΔK_J,II and ΔK_J,III, applied in the mixed-mode II+III part of the specimen, by comparing elasto-plastic and elastic solutions.

Abstract: The study is focused on finding and describing microscopic paths of modes II and III cracks in commercially pure α-titanium (hcp structure). Experiments were done on cylindrical bars with a circumferential cracked notch loaded in shear (modes II, III and II + III) and torsion (mode III). Fractography analysis showed that the crack growth was crystallography-controlled and the deflection and twisting angles of crack propagation direction (with respect to the shear plane) were relatively high. This behavior is a mixture of previously observed morphology in ARMCO iron (bcc) and austenitic steel (fcc). It can be understood in terms of a number of available slip systems in bcc, fcc and hcp lattices.

Abstract: Fracture surfaces of two sets of rotor blades failed after strong testing procedures of aircraft engines in the test-stand are investigated by means of SEM. While the process of fatigue fracture in the first set of blades did not reveal any defect features, both the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks was strongly influenced by casting defects.