Open Access

ARTICLE

An Automated Procedure for the Geometrical Modelling of a Surface Crack Front

J. Toribio¹, J.C. Matos², B. González¹, J. Escuadra²

1 Dept. of Materials Engineering, University of Salamanca, Spain
2 Dept. of Computing Engineering, University of Salamanca, Spain

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring 2009, 5(1), 57-72. https://doi.org/10.3970/sdhm.2009.005.057

Abstract

In this paper an automatic (analytical-numerical) procedure is proposed to model the front of a transverse surface crack located in the circular section of a lineal structural element (wire, cable, strand, rod, shaft,..., i.e., a cylindrical geometry) by means of a fitting ellipse, obtaining the ellipse parameters from a series of points in therealcrack front and adjusting them to thetheoreticalfitting ellipse by a least square method. For symmetric cracks two modelling procedures are formulated: (i) in the first one, a fitting ellipse is used wit its centre belonging to the periphery of the circular section of the cylinder; (ii) in the second one, a circle is used with no restrictions regarding the position of its centre. Both methods were compared and applied to real cracks in high-strength steel wires subjected to fatigue.

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Keywords

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