DESIGNING OF A TESTING MACHINE FOR SHEAR-MODE FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH

Abstract

As recognized, flaking-type failure is one of the serious problems for railroad tracks and bearings. In essence, flaking-type failure is closely related to the growth of the shear-mode (Mode-II and Mode-III) fatigue crack. In our research group, it is demonstrated that a shear-mode fatigue crack can be reproduced for cylindrical specimens by applying the cyclic torsion in the presence of the static axial compressive stress. However, a biaxial servo-hydraulic fatigue testing machine is quite expensive to purchase and costly to maintain. The low testing speed (about 10Hz) of the testing machine further aggravates the situation. As a result, study on shear-mode fatigue crack growth is still in the nascent stage. To overcome the difficulties mentioned above, in this research activity, we developed a high-performance and cost-effective testing machine to reproduce the shear-mode fatigue crack growth by improving the available resonance-type torsion fatigue testing machine. The primary advantage of using the resonance-type torsion fatigue testing machine is cost-efficiency. In addition, the testing speed effectively can be improved, in comparison with that of a biaxial servo-hydraulic fatigue testing machine. By utilizing the newly-designed testing machine, we have demonstrated that we can successfully reproduce the shear-mode fatigue crack.