This study was carried out on the background of Sutong Bridge project based on fracture mechanics, aiming at analyzing the growth mechanism of fatigue cracks of a bridge under the load of vehicles. Stress intensity factor (SIF) can be calculated by various methods. Three steel plates with different kinds of cracks were taken as the samples in this study. With the combination of finite element analysis software ABAQUS and the J integral method, SIF values of the samples were calculated. After that, the extended finite element method in the simulation of fatigue crack growth was introduced, and the simulation of crack growth paths under different external loads was analyzed. At last, we took a partial model from the Sutong Bridge and supposed its two dangerous parts already had fine cracks; then simulative vehicle load was added onto the U-rib to predict crack growth paths using the extended finite element method.

The small artificial surface defects in the coarse-grain steel are studied. The size of the used defects is smaller than the most relevant microstructural unit of steel, i.e. the average grain size. The samples of coarse-grain steel are prepared using a welding thermal-cycle simulator and a laboratory furnace. The defects are made by indenting with a Vickers pyramid. One of the final results of the defect making is the existence of local residual stresses. The influence of residual stresses on the crack initiation from those artificial defects is discussed in the article.

The present paper investigates the effects of variable-amplitude loads on fatigue crack growth rates for the 2024-T3 aluminium alloy on the basis of microfractographic analyses and its capacity to reconstruct load-time histories of failed components. For this purpose, there were applied three different variable-amplitude load sequences with single and multiple overloads and underloads. Subsequently, images of fatigue striations on components’ fracture surfaces were examined. The aforementioned loads were employed when simulating fatigue crack behaviour in aeronautical alloys.

A strip yield model implementation by the present authors is applied to predict fatigue crack growth observed in structural steel specimens under various constant and variable amplitude loading conditions. Attention is paid to the model calibration using the constraint factors in view of the dependence of both the crack closure mechanism and the material stress-strain response on the load history. Prediction capabilities of the model are considered in the context of the incompatibility between the crack growth resistance for constant and variable amplitude loading.

In the present work, an experimental investigation of a transverse fatigue crack has been carried out. A mathematical modelling of cracked rotor system along with the measured vibration is used to find crack parameters that not only detect the fault but also quantify it. Many experimental studies on cracks considered the crack as a slit or notch, which remains open. However, such flaws do not mimic a fatigue crack behavior, in which crack front opens and closes (i.e., breathes in a single revolution of the rotor). The fatigue crack in rotors commonly depicts 2x frequency component in the response, as well as higher frequency components, such as 3x, 4x and so on. In rotors, both forward and backward whirling take place due to asymmetry in rotor, and thus the fatigue crack gives the forward and backward whirl for all such harmonics. A rotor test rig was developed with a fatigue crack in it; rotor motions in two orthogonal directions were captured from the rig at discrete rotor angular speeds using proximity probes. The directional-spectrum processing technique has been utilized to the measured displacements to get its forward and backward whirl components. Subsequently, it is executed in a mathematical model-based estimation procedure to obtain the crack forces, residual unbalances, and remaining rotor system unknown variables. Estimation of crack forces during rotation of the shaft gives its characteristics, which can be used further to develop newer crack models.