Thermal cycling and ultraviolet radiation effects on fatigue performance of triaxial CFRP laminates for bridge applications

Environmental processing such as thermal cycling and ultraviolet (UV) exposure contributes to degradation of polymer composites mechanical properties. This study focuses on assessing fatigue life of both unstressed and stressed triaxial carbon/epoxy composite laminates exposed to both thermal cycling and UV radiation. In this study, five test series were conducted to assess such effects on fatigue life of carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates exposed to tensile-compressive (T-C) fatigue loading. This included the following: (i) Pre-exposure (baseline) test group tests; (ii) unstressed thermal cyclic aging; (iii) stressed (tensioned) thermal cyclic test group; (iv) stressed (compressed) thermal cyclic test group; and (v) UV radiation exposure test group. Fatigue life with 95%, 97.7%, and 99% guarantee rates is calculated based on stochastic analysis. In terms of different guarantee rates, the material parameters of S-N curves are fitted after transforming the data to a log–log space. Experimental results indicated that the difference of parameter [Formula: see text] is relatively small for different guarantee rates, and that the coefficient m decreased with increasing probabilistic guarantee rate. Furthermore, the ratio [Formula: see text] decreases with larger guarantee rates and increases as the stress range increases. Results of this study indicated that UV radiation exposure has the largest effect on fatigue life stress range less than 500.0 MPa. Also, fatigue life of pre-compressed specimens exposed to thermal cyclic is most affected when exposed to stress levels larger than 500.0 MPa. For stress ranges less than 500.0 MPa, the effects on fatigue life of unstressed and pre-compressed thermal cycled specimens are relatively large as compared to baseline group.

Durability of Gadolinium Zirconate/YSZ Double-Layered Thermal Barrier Coatings under Different Thermal Cyclic Test Conditions

Higher durability in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) is constantly sought to enhance the service life of gas turbine engine components such as blades and vanes. In this study, three double layered gadolinium zirconate (GZ)-on-yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) TBC variants with varying individual layer thickness but identical total thickness produced by suspension plasma spray (SPS) process were evaluated. The objective was to investigate the role of YSZ layer thickness on the durability of GZ/YSZ double-layered TBCs under different thermal cyclic test conditions i.e., thermal cyclic fatigue (TCF) at 1100 °C and a burner rig test (BRT) at a surface temperature of 1400 °C, respectively. Microstructural characterization was performed using SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and porosity content was measured using image analysis technique. Results reveal that the durability of double-layered TBCs decreased with YSZ thickness under both TCF and BRT test conditions. The TBCs were analyzed by SEM to investigate microstructural evolution as well as failure modes during TCF and BRT test conditions. It was observed that the failure modes varied with test conditions, with all the three double-layered TBC variants showing failure in the TGO (thermally grown oxide) during the TCF test and in the ceramic GZ top coat close to the GZ/YSZ interface during BRT. Furthermore, porosity analysis of the as-sprayed and TCF failed TBCs revealed differences in sintering behavior for GZ and YSZ. The findings from this work provide new insights into the mechanisms responsible for failure of SPS processed double-layered TBCs under different thermal cyclic test conditions.

Thermal Cyclic Test Safety and Effectiveness Analysis Method for Astronautic Electronic Products Based on Thermal Simulation

Thermal Cycle is a common test to ensure solder joints and interconnects reliability of astronautic electronic products through eliminating infant failures caused by latent defects. Both over-testing and under-testing risks have to be considered sufficiently during the constituting of thermal cyclic test scheme. Consequently, the methodology presented in this paper offers a novel way to evaluate these risks. Safety analysis on the thermal cyclic test scheme can prevent unnecessary operating life consumption, while the effectiveness analysis can ensure the sufficiency of the test and get rid of the defective products. Additionally, 3 thermal cyclic test schemes which can be applied on a signal acquisition board were analyzed with this methodology individually, and the most felicitous test scheme was identified at the end of this procedure.