Different criteria are available in the literature to assess the fracture behaviour of sharp V-notches. A typical and well-known criterion is based on the application of the notch stress intensity factors (NSIFs), which are able to quantify the intensity of the stress fields ahead of the notch tip. This work considers two recent energy-based criteria applied here to sharp V-notches. The first criterion is based on the averaged value of the strain energy density (SED), while the second one called Finite Fracture Mechanics (FFM) criterion is available under two different formulations: that by Leguillon et al. and that by Carpinteri et al. Considering the averaged SED criterion, a new expression for estimating the control radius Rc under pure Mode II loading is proposed and compared with the sound expression valid under pure Mode I loading. With reference to pure Mode II loading the critical NSIF at failure can be expressed as a function of the V-notch opening angle. By adopting the three criteria considered here the expressions for the NSIFs are derived and compared. After all, the approaches are employed considering sharp V-notched brittle components under in-plane shear loading, in order to investigate the capability of each approach for the fracture assessment. With this aim a bulk of experimental data taken from the literature is used for the comparison.

Ductile failure is investigated experimentally and theoretically in U-notched Al 7075- T6 thin sheets under mixed mode I/II loading. First, several U-notched rectangular sheets are subjected to mixed mode I/II failure tests and the load-carrying capacity of the sheets are experimentally recorded. Then, the Equivalent Material Concept (EMC) is employed in conjunction with the U-notch maximum tangential stress (UMTS) and U-notch mean stress (UMS) criteria to theoretically estimate the load-carrying capacity of the U-notched Al 7075-T6 sheets. It is shown that the experimental failure loads are well predicted by means of both the UMTS-EMC and UMS-EMC criteria. Moreover, the experimental observations and the elastic-plastic finite element analyses indicate that the U-notched aluminum sheets fail by the large-scale yielding (LSY) regime.

Mixed mode I/II stress intensity factors of an edge slant-cracked plate under tensile loading were assessed. A two-dimensional finite element analysis was employed using ABAQUS. Various crack lengths and angles were analyzed. The effect of the crack location at the plate edge was also examined. Crack initiation angles were calculated. In general, modes I and II stress intensity factor increase with increasing crack length. However, the rate of increase in mode I SIF decreases with increasing the main crack angle. The results showed that stress intensity factors decreased ad the crack mouth approaches the edge mid line. The crack location becomes more significant as the crack length increases. The angle of first cracking depends on crack length, location, and angle.

This paper presents a numerical solution for vibration analysis of cantilevered non-uniform trapezoidal thick plates. Based on the first shear deformation theory, kinetic and strain energies of the plate are derived and using Hamilton's principle, governing equations and boundary conditions are derived. A transformation of coordinates is used to convert the equations and boundary conditions from the original coordinates into a new computational coordinates. Using Differential quadrature method (DQM), natural frequencies and corresponding modes are derived numerically. Convergence and accuracy of the proposed solution are confirmed using results presented by other authors and also results obtained based on the finite element method using ANSYS software. Finally, as the case studies, two cases for variation of thickness are considered and the effects of angles, aspect ratio and thickness of the plate on the natural frequencies are studied. It is concluded that two angles of the trapezoid have opposite effect on the natural frequencies. Also, it is shown that all frequencies rise as value of thickness increases or value of the aspect ratio of the plate decreases. The most advantage of the proposed solution is its applicability for plates with variable thickness.

In this paper, a method for severity fault diagnosis of ball bearings is presented. The method is based on wavelet packet transform (WPT), statistical parameters, principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM). The key to bearing faults diagnosis is features extraction. Hence, the proposed technique consists of preprocessing the bearing fault vibration signal using statistical parameters and energy obtained through the application of Db8- WPT at the third level of decomposition. After feature extraction from vibration signal, PCA is employed for dimensionality reduction. Finally, particle swarm optimization with passive congregation-based support vector machine is used to classify seven kinds of bearing faults. The classification results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method for severity faults diagnosis in ball bearings.

When a structure is influenced by the earthquake external force, some energy imposed to the structure is dissipated and remained energy causes structure displacements. Dissipated energy in the structure depends on the type of structure and its optimal engineering design. In any typical structure, the type of connections, stiffness of structure, dampers, place of windfall and damper and other factors play significant role in the amount of dissipated energy. This article introduces a new resilience factor which is a function of energy dissipation factors of input seismic energy. Mathematical equations are presented for this factor and its limits are determined for different periods. The applicability of the proposed factor is also investigated for two typical structural examples.

This article deals with the thermoelastic interaction in a three-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic viscoelastic medium under the Dual-phase-lag model of generalized thermoelasticity. The resulting non-dimensional coupled equations are applied to a specific problem of a half-space whose surface is traction-free and is subjected to a time-dependent thermal shock. The analytical expressions for the displacement components, stress, temperature and strain are obtained in the physical domain by employing normal mode analysis. These expressions are also calculated for a copper-like material and have been depicted graphically. Discussions have been made to highlight the effect of viscosity on the studied field. The phenomenon of a finite speed of propagation is observed for each field. Also, if the effect of viscosity is neglected, the results agree with the existing literature.

This paper is concerned with the vibration and stability analysis of thick rectangular plates resting on elastic foundation, which is distributed over the particular area of the plate. A two-parameter (Pasternak) model is considered to describe the elastic foundation. The eigenvalue problem in 3-D domain is numerically solved by a combination of the finite element and differential quadrature method (DQM). The energy principle is employed to derive the governing equations in the framework of three-dimensional, linear and small strain theory of elasticity. The in-plane domain of the problem is discretized using two-dimensional finite elements and spatial derivatives of equations in the thickness direction are discretized in strong-form using DQM. As a first endeavor, the mixed FE-DQ method has been employed for 3-D buckling and free vibration analysis of rectangular thick plates partially supported by an elastic foundation. The accuracy of obtained results is validated by comparing to the few analytical solutions in the literature.

The article is devoted to some aspects of research of hostile environment influence on the concrete durability. The mechanism of formation of chaotically diversified difficult structure is described. Chemical interactions of cement with active components of diffusion in steam space are examined. Measures for receiving conditions under which the volume of products of reaction will be equal to the volume of the reacted alkaline components of a cement stone are offered. High-quality and quantitative changes in a pore space, which are irrespective of density and the relative molecular mass of reaction products are described. Besides, movement and distribution of gaseous products of reaction in volumes of a cement stone are simulated. Reasonable integrated dependences of influence of aggressive environment on various types of concrete surfaces are given. The methods of corrosion control offered in article allow substantially to lower or absolutely to exclude adverse effect of hostile environment on concrete and reinforced concrete structures already at a stage of selection of composition of concrete mix. In this case service life of concrete and reinforced concrete structures will increase.

Double-sided trimming shear machine is used for longitudinal both–sided trimming of steel plates and simultaneous scraping of trimmed edges at specific length. Side trimming shear (STS) executes the most vital role in increasing the productivity of plate mill and due to its feature, efficiency of plate mill division is enormously increases. In general, frequency of the occurrence of breakdown in STS machine is a most challenging task when STS performs side trimming and scrap cutting machining process. Bhilai Steel Plant (Steel Authority of India at Bhilai) in India is continuously facing a problem due to breakdown of STS machine. The use of separate knife for side trimming and scrap cutting reduces the possibility of scrap jamming which is a major reason for breakdown of STS machine. Researchers and practitioners also suggest the use of arc guillotine shear for side trimming and straight guillotine shear for scrap cutting for minimizing the breakdown in STS machine. The aim of this study is to describe the problems faced by the steel industry as well as the necessary steps which should be taken for improvement of the productivity of STS machine and also it has made contribution to Bhilai Steel Plant by its growth and prosperity. The methodology of study is purely qualitative and the results point out the problems, its implications, steps taken to improve the overall productivity of Bhilai steel plant.