Articular stress fracture arising from the distal end of the third metacarpal bone (MC3) is a common serious injury in Thoroughbred racehorses. Currently, there is no method for predicting fracture risk clinically. We describe an ex-vivo biomechanical model in which we measured subchondral crack micromotion under compressive loading that modeled high speed running. Using this model, we determin...

In the aerospace and aviation sectors, the damage tolerance concept has been applied widely so that the modeling analysis of fatigue crack growth has become more and more significant. Since the process of crack propagation is highly nonlinear and determined by many factors, such as applied stress, plastic zone in the crack tip, length of the crack, etc., it is difficult to build up a general an...

A preliminary study of the effects from age and dehydration on fatigue crack growth in human dentin was conducted. Compact tension (CT) fatigue specimens of coronal dentin were prepared from extracted molars and subjected to high cycle fatigue (10(5)<N<10(6)) under Mode I loading. Young hydrated dentin (mean age=25+/-7 years), old hydrated dentin (mean age=55+/-14 years) and young dehydrated de...

This study evaluated the tradeoffs amongst fatigue crack propagation resistance, wear resistance, and oxidative stability in a wide variety of clinically-relevant cross-linked ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene. Highly cross-linked re-melted materials showed good oxidation and wear performance, but diminished fatigue crack propagation resistance. Highly cross-linked annealed materials sho...

Ultrasonic methods have been implemented for in situ sizing of fatigue cracks near fastener holes. These techniques, however, only provide an estimate at the time of the measurement and cannot predict the remaining life of the structure. In contrast, statistical crack propagation approaches model the expected fatigue life based on worst-case fatigue process assumptions. The authors have recentl...

A major part of fracture mechanics is concerned with studying the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks. This typically requires constant monitoring of crack growth during fatigue cycles and the knowledge of the precise location of the crack tip at any given time. One technique currently available for measuring fatigue crack length is the Potential Drop method[1]. The method, however, ma...

Ambientto elevated-temperature fracture and fatigue-crack growth results are presented for five MoMo3Si-Mo5SiB2–containing -Mo matrix (17 to 49 vol pct) alloys, which are compared to results for intermetallic-matrix alloys with similar compositions. By increasing the -Mo volume fraction, ductility, or microstructural coarseness, or by using a continuous -Mo matrix, it was found that improved fr...

Prognostics and health management techniques have drawn widespread attention due to their ability to facilitate maintenance activities based on need. On-line prognosis of fatigue crack propagation can offer information for optimizing operation and maintenance strategies in real-time. This paper proposes a Lamb wave-particle filter (LW-PF)-based method for on-line prognosis of fatigue crack prop...

A major part of fracture mechanics is concerned with studying the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks. This typically requires constant monitoring of crack growth during fatigue cycles which necessitates automation of the whole process. If the rate of crack growth can be determined the experimenter can vary externally controlled parameters such as load level, load cycle frequency and s...

The corrosion fatigue crack growth characteristics of small (>35pm) surface and corner cracks in aluminum alloy 7075 is established. The early stage of crack growth is studied by performing in situ long focal length microscope (500X) crack length measurements in laboratory air and 1% NaCl environments. To quantify the “small crack effect” in the corrosive environment, the corrosion fatigue crac...