Unfolding the Early Fatigue Damage Accumulation for Cross-ply Laminates

Fatigue damage of composite laminates has attracted considerable attention from research community and industry, in view that laminated structures are inevitable to suffer from fatigue loading during their service life. It is rather complicated to understand and explain, what governs the initiation, accumulation, interaction (synergy or...

Wave-induced vibrations of flood gates: modelling, experimentation and design

Flood gates form an essential part of many flood defence systems in coastal areas. During storm events, these gates are subjected to extreme loads from various sources. This dissertation addresses the dynamic behaviour of flood gates induced by wave impacts. A semi-analytical fluid-structure interaction model is developed to predict vertical...

Dynamic aeroelastic optimization of composite wings including fatigue considerations

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the aviation industry with more than 60% reduction in the passenger traffic in the year 2020 compared to year 2019. The passenger traffic which is now expected to reach the 2019 level only around the year 2024 will still continue to grow but at a lower pace compared to the pre pandemic levels....

On Ship Structure Risk and Total Ownership Cost Management Assisted by Prognostic Hull Structure Monitoring

Ships must perform their missions with a high degree of reliability to maximize availability through their service life. The ultimate safety of the hull structure is time-dependent with degradation caused by the operational environment. Achieving the fore mentioned reliability and mission availability requirements are complicated because ships...

On self magnetic flux leakage in support of fatigue crack monitoring in ship and offshore structures: A numerical, experimental, and full-scale application study

Ship and offshore structures are prone to fatigue damage as they are cyclically<br/>loaded by waves. Therefore, regular inspection is needed in order to confirm adequate structural integrity throughout the entire service life of the structure. Detected fatigue cracks that are too long for safe operation need to be repaired. Detected cracks of...

Deflections and Natural Frequencies as Parameters for Structural Health Monitoring: The Effect of Fatigue and Corrosion on the Deflections and the Natural Frequencies of Reinforced Concrete Beams

The Dutch road infrastructure contains a large number of concrete bridges and viaducts. Malfunction of these bridges and viaducts has large financial consequences. To avoid malfunctions of bridges, bridges need to be inspected frequently and actions should be taken when required. The reliability of the inspections of the health of a bridge could...

Fatigue strength of repaired cracks in welded connections made of very high strength steels

For cyclically loaded structures, fatigue design becomes one of the important design criteria. The state of art shows that with modification of the conventional structural design methodology, the use of very high strength steels may have a positive effect on fatigue strength of welded connections. However, there is little known about the repair...

Characterisation of Fatigue Crack Growth in Adhesive Bonds

Multi-Scale Modelling of Fatigue of Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Composites

In this research, extensive fatigue tests were performed on single glass fibres and composite coupons. Comparison of the test results shows that there is a significant difference between the fibre and composite fatigue behaviour. In order to clarify this difference, a multi-scale micro-mechanical model was developed. This model predicts fatigue...

Characterization and Identification of Bituminous Materials Modified with Montmorillonite Nanoclay

Montmorillonite (Mt) nanoclay is a layered silicate mineral with a 2:1-type layer structure, two tetrahedrals sandwiching one octahedral. In recent decades, it is successfully introduced into polymer systems to form polymer-clay nanocomposites (PCN) in which the silicate layers of the Mt are randomly and homogeneously dispersed at a molecular...