Fracture mechanics and hot spot stress-based fatigue life calculation: Case study for a crane runway girder
Corresponding Author
Kris Hectors
SIM vzw, Tech Lane Ghent Science, Park/Campus A, Ghent, Belgium
OWI-Lab, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department EMSME, Laboratory Soete, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Correspondence
Kris Hectors, 2OWI-lab, Ghent University, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department EMSME, Laboratory Soete, Technologiepark 46, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorSomsubhro Chaudhuri
OWI-Lab, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department EMSME, Laboratory Soete, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Search for more papers by this authorWim De Waele
OWI-Lab, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department EMSME, Laboratory Soete, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Kris Hectors
SIM vzw, Tech Lane Ghent Science, Park/Campus A, Ghent, Belgium
OWI-Lab, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department EMSME, Laboratory Soete, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Correspondence
Kris Hectors, 2OWI-lab, Ghent University, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department EMSME, Laboratory Soete, Technologiepark 46, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorSomsubhro Chaudhuri
OWI-Lab, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department EMSME, Laboratory Soete, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Search for more papers by this authorWim De Waele
OWI-Lab, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department EMSME, Laboratory Soete, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
This work presents the case study of a welded overhead crane runway girder. A full-shell global finite element model was developed and validated using strain measurements. The global model drives solid submodels of different scales. Using load spectra based on real operational data, hot spot stress and XFEM-based fracture mechanics simulations are performed to assess the fatigue properties of two critical joints. For the fracture mechanics-based approach, it is shown that small cracks quickly converge to the same aspect ratio. Hence, the choice of the initial crack aspect ratio was found to be inconsequential. But the aspect ratio must not be assumed to be constant during the fatigue crack growth simulations. Finally, it is shown that the size at which a crack is transferred from one submodel to a subsequent is critical for the accuracy of the fatigue crack growth simulations.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data that support the findings of this study are available from Arcelor Mittal Ghent. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this study. Data are available from the author(s) with the permission of Arcelor Mittal Ghent.
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