Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
- 2014 (3) (entfernen)
Dokumenttyp
Sprache
- Englisch (3)
Referierte Publikation
- ja (3)
Schlagworte
- Bridge hangers (1)
- Fatigue (1)
- Fatigue crack (1)
- Fatigue failure (1)
- Remaining service life (1)
- Steam generator (1)
- Transport failure (1)
- Undamped structural elements (1)
- Vibration analysis (1)
- Vibrations due to shipping (1)
Unexpected wind-induced vibrations of the hangers have caused an early fatigue crack on specific steel components and joints of a railway bridge over the Elbe River at Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany. During regular periodic inspection a fatigue crack of approximately 240 mm length was found near a butt weld of the longest hanger. The hanger was immediately secured by welded butt straps across the crack. Based on experimental investigations of hanger vibrations additional bracings were added between the hangers to avoid wind-induced vibrations. The weld heat influence zone which was affected by high cyclic stresses was replaced by new material.
Nevertheless it was impossible to determine sufficient remaining service life for those remaining bridge components that were exposed to extreme high real load cycles. The grinding of the affected steel surfaces was the key element of the remedial actions. Furthermore, additional fracture mechanic calculations were carried out in order to assess the remaining service life of the welded joints. In this respect, the calculation approach used by Deutsche Bahn AG was compared to further procedures from the mechanical engineering field. These investigations showed that the studied, repaired components have both, bearing and fatigue capacities within the validity of standards.
Investigations on the breakdown of a heat recovery steam generator during the initial operation run
(2014)
Several years ago, in 2003, an industrial heat recovery steam generator in charge of generating process steam in a petrochemical refinery was installed and prepared for initial operation. The steam generator enclosed an evaporator section and a superheater section consisting mainly of bundles of tubes with the longest up to several metres in length. During initial operation test runs severe leakages in the evaporator and superheater modules became noticeable. The test runs were stopped and after disassembly, through-wall cracks in several tube bends were found. BAM was commissioned to carry out the investigations in order to find out the reasons for the failure of the tubes. During on-site inspection a number of relevant damaged components and parts were selected and taken away to the laboratories for detailed inspection. Planned analyses were to comprise metallographic as well as fractographic investigations, mechanical fatigue testing and experimental as well as finite element vibration analyses on specimens and components. Soon, the fracture mechanism was found to be mechanical fatigue due to the fact that the examined fracture surfaces showed the very characteristic beachmarks and colouring patterns. To identify the particular loading and time at which crack initiation and crack propagation took place, experimental and numerical vibration analyses of specific tubes as well as mechanical fatigue tests on tube bends were carried out. Thus it was possible to identify the eigenfrequencies of individual tubes, to estimate the dynamic response as well as the nominal stresses and, hence, experimentally characterise the in-service fatigue strength of the components. Mechanical and thermal comparative tests on tube bends were performed simulating the conditions during the initial test run in order to get crack surfaces comparable to that of the originally damaged components. Thereby it became obvious that the fatigue cracks were initiated by vibrations the tube bundles were exposed to during rail transport from the manufacturers site to the place of installation. Based on these results, the damaged components could be repaired or exchanged without modification of the construction, but the rules relating packaging and securing for shipping had to be revised.
The 100th anniversary of the death of Adolf Martens will be commemorated on July 24th, 2014. He is eponymously remembered today through the term martensite, which was first used by Floris Osmond as a name for the metastable phase that results from rapid quenching of carbon steels. Born in 1850 near to Hagenow in the region Mecklenburg, Germany, Martens was one of the pioneers of materials engineering in 19th century Europe.
Martens began his career working for the Prussian Eastern Railway before joining the Royal Industrial Academy in Berlin in 1880. In 1884, he was appointed director of the Royal Mechanical Experimental Station, a small institution associated to the academy. Failure analysis was continuously practiced at this institution, which became later the nucleus of the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), for the 110 years since. The history of Martens will be dealt with in an in-depth article in this special issue.
Since the 19th century, failure analysis techniques have been refined, and new methods of chemical analysis and non-destructive testing have been developed; however, the basic approach to failure analysis has not changed much since Martens' days. The basic tenets of failure analysis remain things like on-site inspection, extensive visual 'non-destructive' inspection, developing an understanding of the background story, performing materials testing, and 'connecting the dots.' Martens introduced and developed experimental techniques like macro photography, fractography, metallography, hardness measurements, and mechanical testing. Modern failure analysts continue adding even more techniques to this list, leading to a more interdisciplinary approach which many would say is the only way to find the root causes of complex failure events.
The present special issue of EFA presents an overview of more than 100 years of failure analysis at BAM and its predecessors, closing the circle from the beginnings of modern failure analysis done by Martens himself in the 1890s to its present-day application.
This special issue starts with an excursion back to Martens' work and innovations and presents a newly translated original manuscript of Martens from 1890. Whereas some papers of Martens and his co-workers are well documented, only little can be found about failure analysis in the period from 1914 to the 1950s. Most documents of this period have not survived until today. Beginning in the 1960s more and more significant works are preserved, which were using the interdisciplinary approach of Martens. Since the beginning of the digital age in the 1980s almost all text documents are accessible, whereas digital images were stored since the 1990s. Since then the problem is no longer accessibility but copyright issues that prevent many interesting case studies from being published. Maybe the next generation of failure scientists can reveal some of them later on.