Issue 35

G. Meneghetti et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 35 (2016) 172-181; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.35.20 180 Inside the cyclic plastic zone differences are more pronounced because heat generation is actually distributed inside V p , while in Eq. (11) it has been lumped to the centre of the cyclic plastic zone. (a) 19 19.5 20 20.5 21 21.5 22 22.5 23 23.5 24 0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15 time [s] T* [°C] t*=1.835 s A  K=36.9 MPa·m 0.5 f L =37 Hz (b) T* m (t) = 0.337·t + 20.1 20 20.5 21 21.5 22 22.5 1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5 time [s] T* [°C] t=t* Detail A Figure 7 : a) Temperature evolution during a fatigue test and b) enlarged view of detail A D ISCUSSION s stated above, Eq (6) was derived under the assumption that the energy dissipated by convection and radiation is negligible, i.e. H  H cd . The specific thermal flux power extracted by natural convection h cv and that dissipated by radiation h ir are given by     ( , ; ) , ; cv h r t T r t T        (15a)     4 4 ( , ; ) , ; ir n h r t T r t T          (15b) where  is the heat transfer coefficient by convection,  is the surface emissivity,  n the Stephan–Boltzmann constant and T  the room temperature. By considering, as an example, the experimental conditions of V_5 specimen and  K=40.6 MPa·m 0.5 , the mean temperature averaged inside V, T* m, was equal to 28.1°C, T  =19°C,  =0.92 [8] and f L =35 Hz. By assuming a reasonable heat transfer coefficient under the hypothesis of natural convection on the order of  10 W/(m 2 K) and considering that S cv =S ir =2·  R 2 , Q* cv and Q* ir can be calculated by means of Eqs 15 and 7a: * cv cv cv L h S Q f V    (16) The result is Q* cv =867 J/(m 3 ·cycle) and Q* ir =472 J/(m 3 ·cycle), respectively, that are four order of magnitude lower than the relevant Q* values reported in Tab. 1, that take into account only the conduction term. CONCLUSIONS theoretical framework has been defined to estimate the specific heat energy per cycle averaged in a defined volume surrounding the tip of a propagating crack, Q*. A two-dimensional thermal and structural problem has been considered. Experimental tests were executed on AISI 304L stainless steel cracked specimens subjected to push-pull fatigue loads and the Q* parameter has been determined starting from temperature measurements performed in the vicinity of the crack tip by means of an infrared camera. With reference to the material and experimental equipment available in the present paper, a reasonably accurate estimation of Q* was possible only for K max >13 MPa · m 0.5 . The experimental temperatures close to the crack tip were compared successfully with an analytical solution available in the literature. A A