Internal cracks are a serious problem in pipelines conveying unsteady pressurized fluids like natural gas. To investigate and overcome this problem, this paper is motivated to highlight and study the response of gas pipes made of functionally graded materials (FGM) instead of the traditional carbon steel material. FGM is proposed as a composite material because of its advantages of minimizing the stress variation in the pipe. Ceramic is applied because of its durability against corrosion and its surface hardness against erosion. FGM properties are radially graded and a finite element model is developed and implemented into ABAQUS package, including FORTRAN subroutines which are adapted for the present case study. Coupled plane strain thermoelastic analysis is used to investigate the stresses and the stress intensity factor (SIF) at various crack depths under the actual thermomechanical loads. Both coupled and uncoupled thermomechanical approaches are introduced and compared to reveal the necessity of the coupled analysis for accurate FGMs’ investigation. The different influences of unsteady thermal and mechanical loads on the crack propagation are discussed.

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Biomechanical testbench emulating the physiological loading of the pelvis is crucial in developing reconstructive implants for fragility fractures of the pelvis. Additionally, it will help understand the influence of the common daily loading on the pelvic ring. However, most reported experimental studies were mainly comparative with simplified loading and boundary conditions. In (Part I - Computational Design of Experiments) of our study, we described the concept of the computational experiment design to design and construct a biomechanical testbench emulating the gait movement of the pelvis. The 57 muscles and joints' contact forces were reduced to four force actuators and one support, producing a similar stress distribution. The experimental setup is explained in this paper (Part II - Experimental Testing), and some experimental results are presented. In addition, a series of repeatability and reproducibility tests were conducted to assess the test stand capabilities of replicating the gait physiological loading. The calculated stresses and the experimentally recorded strains showed that the pelvic ring response to the loading always follows the loaded leg side during the gait cycle. Furthermore, the experimental results of the pelvis displacement and strain at selected locations match the numerical ones. The developed test stand and the concept of computational experiment design behind it provide guidelines on how to design biomechanical testing equipment with physiological relevance.