Multi-purpose fatigue sensor

Abstract

The paper describes the key principles and results of preliminary experiments aimed at the development of new technique for the fatigue life prediction under conditions of biaxial cyclic tension. The foundations of the method were developed early by the numerous tests with monitoring the process of surface deformation relief formation, which is proved to be an indicator of accumulated fatigue damage under uniaxial fatigue. The employed phenomenon was early applied for the development of a family of uniaxial loading fatigue sensors. The formation of strain induced relief has been recently taken into consideration as a part of damage accumulation criteria under biaxial fatigue as well. The home-made testing machine has been designed to implement combined bending and torsion loading that simulates loads experienced by an aircraft wing skin. The experimental evidences on formation and evolution of the deformation relief revealed under conditions of combined loading, supports the proposed concept of biaxial fatigue sensor. The characteristic informative parameters for defect detection to be used in fatigue sensors have been established. Their development is interpreted in terms of scale levels of deformation and fracture. Damage accumulation of the sensor’s surface tends to exhibit the self-organization nature. It is accompanied by formation of "folded" strain-induced relief on the surface. The mechanisms of damage accumulation under cyclic deformation were analyzed with the use of the multiscale approach.