Fatigue damage from time domain simulation of combined in-line and cross-flow vortex-induced vibrations

A semi-empirical method for time domain simulation of vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) is used to calculate the in-line and cross-flow fatigue damage of a tensioned riser in uniform and sheared flow. Simulations are run for flow velocities ranging from 0.3 m/s to 2.4 m/s, and a detailed comparison with experimental observations is performed. Results are reported in terms of dominating frequency, mode of vibration and mean of r.m.s. of displacement, as well as fatigue damage distribution along the length of the structure and maximum fatigue damage rates for each case. Fatigue damage is calculated by rainflow counting of the strain time series together with an idealized S–N curve with slope m = 3. The results show that the model reproduces the measured fatigue damage with a satisfactory level of realism, using a consistent set of parameters. This indicates that the model is usable for calculation of riser VIV fatigue damage in various current conditions, assuming the Reynolds number is in the subcritical range.     

Corrosion fatigue load frequency sensitivity analysis

This paper presents experimental assessment of crack growth rates of S355J2+N steel in a corrosion fatigue environment similar to what is experienced on offshore wind farm monopile structures under various cyclic load frequencies in order to assess the effect of cyclic frequency of the applied loading within a frequency range pertinent to the structure. Fatigue crack propagation behaviour in this test programme is evaluated through fatigue tests on six compact tension test specimens in air and in laboratory simulated seawater under free corrosion condition. Fatigue crack lengths were monitored by back face strain (BFS), DCPD and ACPD. A regression model was derived through the BFS method to express strain values as a function of crack length to width ratio. The effectiveness of BFS method is particularly demonstrated in the simulated marine environment. Within the range of test frequencies, crack growth rates in simulated seawater when compared to the equivalent air test revealed environmental reduction factors of 2 and 4 at lower and higher values of stress intensity factors respectively. Significant difference in the results of the seawater test frequencies is discussed.     

车辆铸钢件疲劳寿命预测方法对比分析

阐述了车辆铸钢件疲劳寿命预测的两大评估体系—AAR标准和FKM标准的分析方法,从本质上将两者做了较为详细的对比分析,采用各自不同的输入条件对某B级铸钢侧架进行疲劳寿命预测,得出的计算结果趋于一致,确保疲劳预测的可靠性,为今后铸钢件的准确疲劳寿命预测提供指导参考.     

城际轨道交通动车组一系钢弹簧断裂故障问题研究

一系钢弹簧是动车组重要的承载和减振部件,其故障问题主要集中在断裂和磨损上。目前对于钢弹簧断裂故障的分析大多基于仿真和材料学分析方法,而未对其异常受力根源进行深入研究。从振动响应角度对某动车组一系钢弹簧疲劳断裂故障问题进行深入分析,综合理化分析、振动模态测试以及车轮状态调查,找到钢弹簧失效的根本原因,即车轮存在多边形,且其产生的强迫振动导致钢弹簧发生接触性疲劳断裂。通过车轮镟修,解决了钢弹簧断裂故障问题。     

Low-cycle fatigue assessment of offshore mooring chains under service loading

The integrity of mooring chains is essential to the safety of a range of offshore platforms. However, mooring line failures are occurring earlier than their design lives, with a high number of these failures occurring due to fatigue. Early in the fatigue life of the component fatigue initiation processes occur, where the fatigue hotspot is sensitive to the mean load and there is plastic strain accumulation from the multiaxial stress-strain responses of the material, leading to cyclic plastic damage accumulation. The traditional SN approach suggested by mooring standards does not consider these effects, and it is proposed that this lack of consideration under low-cycle fatigue conditions is the reason for the current non-conservative fatigue assessments of mooring chains. This paper aims to develop a fatigue approach based on a critical plane multiaxial fatigue criterion for mooring chains that can consider the damage-induced by the cyclic plasticity and the mean load effect, to investigate the importance of incorporating low-cycle fatigue into the mooring chain life prediction. To develop the critical plane approach, the multiaxial stress-strain states are extracted for the critical plane at the fatigue hotspot from a finite element model of a mooring chain. This is then correlated with a fatigue life prediction provided by conventional fatigue design data. It uses a simulation of an FPSO as a case study to demonstrate the importance of low cycle fatigue, which shows that the mean load effect is significant in reducing the fatigue life for mooring chain applications, while the effect of fatigue damage-induced cyclic plasticity is limited. The fatigue damage accumulation predicted by the critical plane approach is significantly higher than that of the traditional SN approach and should be accounted for in mooring line design.     

Crack growth direction effects on corrosion-fatigue behaviour of offshore wind turbine steel weldments

In this study corrosion-fatigue tests have been conducted on fracture mechanics specimens extracted from an S355 G10+M structural steel welded plate. The tests have been performed on compact tension specimens with the crack tip located in the heat affected zone. The corrosion-fatigue test results from this study have been compared with the data available on the base metal as well as air tests on the same material. Moreover, the obtained results have been compared with the corrosion-fatigue data available in the literature on a wide range of steels and also the fatigue trends for welded joints in free-corrosion condition recommended in the BS7910 Standard. The effect of the specimen orientation, with respect to the weld region, is also examined in this study and it has been found that higher corrosion-fatigue crack growth rates are generally observed in the tests with 0° orientation. The results have also shown that the corrosive environment has significant effects on the fatigue crack growth acceleration at the beginning of the tests; however, as the crack propagates, the environmental damage effect on crack growth behaviour becomes less pronounced. The results presented in this study are discussed in terms of improvement in the structural integrity assessment of offshore wind turbine monopiles.     

Strength analysis of fillet welds under longitudinal and transverse shear conditions

In support of the development of improved fillet weld sizing criteria for lightweight shipboard structures, a comprehensive static strength test program using longitudinal and transverse shear specimens according to AWS B4.0 Standards has been conducted. This test program covers base material with strength ranging from 71 ksi (490 MPa) to 96 ksi (660 MPa) and weld size ranging from 1/8″ (3 mm) to 3/8″ (10 mm). This paper focuses on a traction stress based analysis of the test data as an effort to establish a unified shear strength definition for load-carrying fillet weld specimens regardless of shear loading conditions. The proposed shear strength definition proves to be effective in correlating the fillet weld strength test data of the longitudinal and transverse shear specimens. The results of this investigation demonstrate that existing shear strength definitions used by various weld sizing criteria such as those given by Class Societies have two major limitations: (1) it cannot be related to a critical stress state on experimentally observed failure plane in transverse shear specimens; (2) it underestimates shear stress at failure due to severe stress concentration at weld end in typical longitudinal shear specimens. These two limitations have been shown to be the major cause for having two significantly different shear strength values: one is transverse shear strength obtained from transverse shear specimens and the other is longitudinal shear strength obtained from longitudinal shear specimens.     

Time domain approach for coupled cross-flow and in-line VIV induced fatigue damage of steel catenary riser at touchdown zone

Existing VIV prediction approaches for steel catenary riser (SCR) typically employ truncation model without considering the interaction between the SCR and soil, and only allow for cross-flow (CF) VIV. In this study, a time domain approach accounting for the SCR-soil interaction is proposed to predict the CF and in-line (IL) VIV induced fatigue damage of a SCR at touchdown zone (TDZ). The hydrodynamic force resulting from the vortex shedding is modeled using the forced oscillation test data of a rigid cylinder and an empirical damping model, which are defined as functions of the non-dimensional dominant frequency and amplitude of the SCR response. Due to the coupling effect, the IL VIV force is magnified based on the CF VIV amplitude. By combining a linear hysteretic interaction model with a trench shape model, some particular phenomena during the vertical SCR-soil interaction are captured and qualitatively discussed, while for the horizontal direction, the seabed is simplified as nonlinear spring model. Based on these models, parametric studies are conducted to broaden the understanding of the sensitivity of VIV induced fatigue damage to the seabed characteristic. The results indicate trench depth, vertical and lateral stiffness, and clay suction are significantly affect the VIV induced maximum fatigue damage at TDZ.     

Quantifying uncertainty in short-term traffic prediction and its application to optimal staffing plan development

In this paper, we aim to quantify uncertainty in short-term traffic volume prediction by enhancing a hybrid machine learning model based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) neural network. Different from the previous studies, the PSO-ELM models require no statistical inference nor distribution assumption of the model parameters, but rather focus on generating the prediction intervals (PIs) that can minimize a multi-objective function which considers two criteria, reliability and interval sharpness. The improved PSO-ELM models are developed for an hourly border crossing traffic dataset and compared to: (1) the original PSO-ELMs; (2) two state of the art models proposed by Zhang et al. (2014) and Guo et al. (2014) separately; and (3) the traditional ARMA and Kalman filter models. The results show that the improved PSO-ELM can always keep the mean PI length the lowest, and guarantee that the PI coverage probability is higher than the corresponding PI nominal confidence, regardless of the confidence level assumed. The study also probes the reasons that led to a few points being not covered by the PIs of PSO-ELMs. Finally, the study proposes a comprehensive optimization framework to make staffing plans for border crossing authority based on bounds of PIs and point predictions. The results show that for holidays, the staffing plans based on PI upper bounds generated much lower total system costs, and that those plans derived from PI upper bounds of the improved PSO-ELM models, are capable of producing the lowest average waiting times at the border. For a weekday or a typical Monday, the workforce plans based on point predictions from Zhang et al. (2014) and Guo et al. (2014) models generated the smallest system costs with low border crossing delays. Moreover, for both holiday and normal Monday scenarios, if the border crossing authority lacked the required staff to implement the plans based on PI upper bounds or point predictions, the staffing plans based on PI lower bounds from the improved PSO-ELMs performed the best, with an acceptable level of service and total system costs close to the point prediction plans.     

“工程力学”课程教学中加强高职学生工程能力和兴趣培养的探索

概述了工程力学性质,对学生现状进行了分析,提出了从引入工程案例、制作力学模型、苦练教师内功等三个方面来加强高职学生工程能力和兴趣的培养。