In this work the methodology of determining mechanical and magnetomechanical properties (mainly magnetostriction) of original composite material on epoxy resin matrix and powdered Giant Magnetostrictive Material (Terfenol-D) has been presented. Researches were carried out in order to differentiate properties of the GMM composite with two different volume fraction of Terfenol-D powder (35% and 45%) in comparison with bulk Terfenol-D. Results show that composites magnetostriction highly depends on volume fraction of Terfenol-D powder, and it is few times lower than in monolithic material. Moreover a possible ways of application were indicated.

No abstract

No abstract

The paper presents an analysis of mixed-mode fatigue crack growth in bridge steel after 100-years operating time. Experiments were carried out under mode I + II configuration on Compact Tension Shear (CTS) specimens and mode I + III on rectangular specimens with lateral stress concentrator under bending and torsion loading type. Due to the lack of accurate Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) solutions, the crack path was modelled with the finite element method according to its experimental observation. As a result, the Kinetic Fatigue Fracture Diagrams (KFFD) were constructed. Due to the change in the tendency of higher fatigue crack growth rates from KI towards KIII dominance for the samples subjected to bending and torsion, it was decided to analyze this phenomenon in detail using electron-scanning microscopy. The fractographic analysis was carried out for specimens subjected to I + III crack loading mode. The mechanism of crack growth in old bridge steel at complex loads was determined and analyzed.