Novel Characterizations of Effective SIFs and Fatigue Crack Propagation Rate of Welded Rail Steel Using DIC

Abstract

The fatigue crack growth-rate test of rail head, waist, and bottom material for U71Mn welded rail was carried out. Digital image correlation (DIC) was used to capture the full-field displacement. The crack-tip position was accurately obtained based on the full-field displacement data, and an accurate crack-tip opening displacement (CTOD) measurement point was found. The CTOD values of the welded rail head under overloaded and unloaded condition were extracted, and the area size of elastic CTOD and plastic CTOD was obtained. According to COD data under different experimental conditions, the corresponding crack opening force was extracted, the crack opening function introduced based on the Elber model, and a calculation method of effective stress-intensity factors (SIFs) considering the plasticity-induced crack closure proposed. The results in this paper provide some references for accurately assessing the fatigue life of welded rail.

Non-Contact Evaluation of Deformation Characteristics on Automotive Steel Sheets

“…Non-contact measurement methods are very promising tools for the experimental investigation of the strain behaviors of loaded materials and structures. DIC was used in the works [1][2][3][4] to determine the fracture parameters. This method uses a mathematical correlation procedure [5] that allows the calculation of point displacements from individual, sequentially scanned, and consecutive digital images of the deformed surface.…”