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Experimental Prediction of Potential Fatigue Crack Path on Concrete Surface
Last modified: 2013-03-12
Abstract
Before the 21th century, it was difficult to predict the potential fatigue crackpath of heterogeneous materials by experimental approaches. The crack path wasusually analyzed by numerical simulation programs in the world during that period.However, numerical programs were not always consistent with the experimental resultsbecause of the variety of materials used in structures. Along with the development ofDigital Speckle Correlation Method (DSCM) in recent years, this new non-destructivetesting technique has presented its advantages in on-line prediction and inspection of thepotential crack paths on specimen surfaces. To testify the feasibility and accuracy ofDSCM system, two different concrete specimens under flexural fatigue loading and amatched software UU© were employed in this paper. By use of global and local strainfields on target surfaces, the start of potential fatigue crack path predicted by DSCMsystem is coincident with the real one observed from experiments. It is testified thatDSCM system is accurate and effective in on-line prediction of potential fatigue crackpath of heterogeneous specimen under flexural cyclic loading. Especially, theexperimental results show that it is beneficial to the safety evaluation and structuraldesign of critical components or structures in practice. In addition, fatigue testingcircumstances should be still and clean to assure more precise analysis results of DSCMsystem.
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