An interesting publication of the Asset Standards Authority (ASA), an independent unit established within Transport for NSW of Australia.
Wheels with defective wheels may cause damage to both the track and the vehicle or lead to derailment. This Wheel Defect Manual provides staff with a summary of wheel conditions under which wheels may continue in service and operating restrictions imposed for defective wheels found on vehicles operating on the RailCorp network.
A interesting paper in « International Journal of Advance Engineering and Research Development » (IJAERD) published on ijaerd.co.in.
Abstract- McCain Foods, an MNC, manufacturer and supplier of FMCG products located in Gujarat, India was experiencing frequent breakdown in operations. During inspection, the plastic conveyor belt and gear mechanism were suspected. Stress analysis of a standard plastic modular link of different height is done using finite element methods. The mechanical behavior of a standard Slat chain which is loaded by the maximum allowed load are considered. The Finite Element analysis has been proved appropriate tool as compared to theoretical computations
A interesting paper in « Case study in Engineering Failure Analysis » published on ScienceDirect.com. Copper alloys are widely used in electrical circuits mainly due to their electrical conductivity. This paper describes cracking of turret terminals made of free cutting brass during swaging operation.
The main goals of this project were the development of the body for an electric vehicle and the study of the front fender. Various aspects related with the project of a fiberglass component were addressed in this work like the choice of materials, and manufacturing processes of composite materials. In order to test the front fender, this was modeled seperatly and imported to ANSYS classic. A model with solid elements and a tailored mesh was developed, having one element per ply in the through the thickness direction and accounting for aspects like contact and laminate layup. Failure analysis was made by a progressive damage model with a set of Hashin type failure criteria.
A paper published in « PCO Proceeding 2013 based on AIP Guide« .
Abstract. Traditionally, the durability performance of vehicle components and subsystem has been investigated and verified by testing physical prototypes. In this study, we performed durability analysis of the knuckle arm. In this study, the stiffness and durability of the knuckle installed in a small size car are investigated using commercial software. Parametric analytical studies have been carried out to estimate the stiffness and fatigue life using commercial software.
Les 25 articles les plus lus de janvier à décembre 2013, la majorité d’entre eux ont fait l’objet de post sur « Les Experts Défaillances »
A new « Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis » online 17 June 2014, about the cracking leakage accident of deaerator/sourgas stripper cylinder in a chemical fertilizer plant. The analysis results indicated that improper welding was the main reason for the cylinder cracking failure. Chromic carbide (Cr23C6) was precipitated at partial grain boundaries of the transition region between base metal and weld seam and induced the depletion of Cr element at the grain boundary and in the vicinity of grain boundary. Cl− in the media was enriched at the grain boundary of chromium depletion region and formed pitting corrosion, which could lead to stress-corrosion cracking of cylinder under tensile stress.
An article published in « International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology« , January 2014.
This paper presents an investigation report of effect of various parameters which affect the performance of an automobile engine. Almost all internal combustion engines have at least one connecting rod to transmit the thrust of the piston to the crankshaft, and as the result the reciprocating motion of the piston is translated into rotational motion of the crankshaft. From the viewpoint of functionality, connecting rods must have the highest possible rigidity at the lowest weight capable to withstand varying loads. It has been found that structural failure of various components results in engine missing and starts producing noise and vibration during racing, mileage gets affected and black or white smoke arise also pickup gets reduced. In automobile industry damaged or broken parts are generally too expensive to replace or repair especially in case of engine. In this concern they presented detailed analysis of causes along with preventive maintenance suggestion schedule for better engine life.
Afin d’obtenir d’EDF et d’Areva la qualification de ses garnitures mécaniques d’étanchéité destinées aux pompes des réacteurs nucléaires de troisième génération (EPR), John Crane France a testé ses garnitures mécaniques d’étanchéité sur un banc d’essai de manière à répondre aux nouvelles exigences des centrales nucléaires de troisième génération (EPR). Ce banc sert dorénavant à toute la profession. Mis au service de l’ensemble de la profession, les bancs d’essais du Cetim sont rapidement transformés et suivent l’évolution des besoins. La compétence des équipes permet de réaliser dans les délais des essais à hautes performances.
Lire l’article dans le document ci-joint. 
A pubication in « Journal of Physics »: Conference Series, 2014. Wind turbine industry utilizes composite materials in turbine blade structural designs because of their high strength/stiffness to weight ratio. T-joint is one of the design configurations of composite wind turbine blades. T-joints are prone to delaminations between skin/stiffener plies and debonds between skin-stiffener-filler interfaces. In this study, delamination/debond behavior of a co-bonded composite T-joint is investigated under 0° pull load condition by 2D finite element method. The failure sequence consists of debonding of filler/stringer interface during one load drop followed by a second drop in which the 2nd filler/stringer debonds, filler/skin debonding and skin delamination leading to total loss of load carrying capacity. This type of failure initiation has been observed widely in the literature. Failure initiation and propagation behavior, initial and max failure loads and stress fields are affected by the property change. In all cases mixed-mode crack tip loading is observed in the failure initiation and propagation stages. In this paper, the detailed delamination/debonding history in T-joints is predicted with cohesive elements for the first time.
