Fatigue treatment of wood by high-frequency cyclic loading

New scientific tools for investigating the qualitative and quantitative response of wood to
mechanical loading under conditions close to those of mechanical pulping are needed to find
ways of radically reducing energy consumption. At KCL a modulated loading device was
developed to fulfill these requirements. The device allows the static load, the loading frequency
and the amplitude to which wood is subjected to be varied over a wide range.
Wood samples were cyclically stressed at large strain (1 mm) pulses and at frequencies in the
range 100-1000 Hz.

The temperature rise in the wood was measured with thermocouples inserted into the
wood and on the wood surface using a thermographic camera. It was found that a high static load
during cyclic loading increased heat generation in the wood. The cyclic loading frequency had
less effect than the level of the static loading. However, low frequencies
generated more heat at a specific number of impacts. The responses of heartwood and sapwood
were significantly different in the fatigue treatment. The temperature rise was higher in
heartwood than in sapwood. The wood underwent irreversible plastic deformations seen as heat
generation and increased pore volume in the wood microstructure.

Effect of cyclic loading on undrained behavior of compacted
sand/clay mixtures

Compacted aggregate/clay mixtures are frequently used as the core material of
embankment dams all over the word. In the seismic zones, the post earthquake static stability of
embankment dams, has great importance for the geotechnical engineers. During a seismic
event, the compacted embankment material is expected to experience little, if any, strength and
stiffness reduction during and shortly after the design earthquake. A series of undrained post cyclic
triaxial compression tests after cyclic loading were performed on a medium plasticity sand/clay
mixtures. Testing was performed on isotropically and anisotropically consolidated specimens
to investigate the effectiveness of aggregate fraction on the mechanical behavior of the
mixtures.

In addition, monotonic triaxial compression tests were also performed on the same
sand/clay mixtures with the same initial condition. The results point out different peculiarities
which can be of interest in assessing the mechanical behavior of the mixtures under post
seismic shaking. The results show that effect of cyclic loading on post cyclic pore water
pressure build-up is significant when pore water pressure build-up is considerably lower than the
associated value in monotonic loading. The effect of aggregate content on post cyclic pore water
pressure build-up is miner. However, when the aggregate content increases the shear strength
increases.



REINFORCED CONCRETE UNDER CYCLIC LOADING
In order to contribute to the on going research effort in this field, an
experimental working plan with cylinder steel fibre reinforced concrete specimens
under compression cyclic loading was carried out. Sets of five specimens were
reinforced with conventional transverse reinforcement of 0, 0.57, 1.71 and 4.01
volume percentage of specimen concrete core. To evaluate the fibre reinforcement
effect, each of this specimens set was reinforced with 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg/m
3
of
hooked-ends steel fibres with an aspect-ratio of 60 and a yield strength of 1250 MPa.
A total of eighty tests were carried out.

The peak stress and the initial elasticity modulus were not significantly
changed by fibre reinforcement. The strain at peak stress and the rigidity of the
unloading/reloading branches were marginally increased with the increment of the
fibre content. The slope of the softening branch was decreased with the increment of
fibre content, revealing a significant increase in the energy absorption capacity. The
results have pointed out that conventional transverse reinforcement can be partially
replaced by appropriate fibre content, without loss of ductility and strength. This
replacement could be favorable in zones densely reinforced with hoops and
stirrups, like beam-column joints of structures submitted to seismic action.

CYCLIC LOAD TESTING OF WOOD-FRAMED, PLYWOOD
SHEATHED ,SHEAR WALLS USING ASTM E564 AND
THREE LOADING SEQUENCES


The damage to wood-framed residential buildings in recent earthquakes has raised
questions regarding the performance of shear wall assemblies when subjected to
cyclic lateral loading. Historically shear wall performance has been evaluated on
monotonic testing which has been used to develop model building code provisions
for engineered shear walls. Presently no national or international standards for
conducting cyclic lateral load testing of wood-framed assemblies are recognized.
ASTM E 564, for example, does not specify a cyclic lateral load testing protocol.

This study applied ASTM E 564 to four identical sets of plywood shear wall
assemblies using three different cyclic lateral load test sequences in order to
investigate the effects of loading sequence on test results. The first sequence had a
large number of cycles patterned after a sequentially phased displacement test
procedure. The second sequence had only large excursions used to study the effects
of large pulses in the near-field of an earthquake. The third sequence had a moderate
number of cycles occurring in progressively increasing excursion increments.
Twenty-four 2.44 m x 2.44 m (8 foot x 8 foot) shear walls with 9.5 mm (3/8 inch) thick plywood
panel sheathing were tested. Four different nail styles were used for the identically framed and
sheathed samples. Two samples of each configuration were tested under each of the three
loading sequences to obtain the loaddisplacement and load-capacity characteristics for each
assembly.

The objective of these shear wall tests was to compare four identical sets of plywood shear
wall assemblies, except for nail type, using three different cyclic lateral load test sequences in order to
investigate the effects of loading sequence. The first set of tests followed the protocol developed by
SEAOSCs Ad Hoc Committee on Testing Standards (4), (5) using the Sequentially Phased
Displacement loading sequence (6). The second set of tests followed the same SEAOSC test
protocol, except the first half of the loading sequence was removed to subject the test samples to large
excursions as to simulate large pulses in the near-field of an earthquake. The third set of tests also
followed SEAOSCs test protocol, except the final three cycles per displacement increment were
removed to minimize nail fracture effects on the sheathing fasteners.

Performance of Steel Structures under Fatigue Cyclic Loading


A component or structure, which is designed to carry a single monotonically increasing
application of static load, may fracture and fail if the same load or even smaller load is applied
cyclically a large number of times. For example a thin rod bent back and forth beyond yielding
fails after a few cycles of such repeated bending. The fatigue failure is due to progressive
propagation of flaws in steel under cyclic loading. This is partially enhanced by the stress
concentration at the tip of such flaw or crack.

The presence of a hole in a plate or simply the presence of a notch in the plate has
created stress concentrations at the center points. These stress concentrations may occur in the
material due to some discontinuities in the material itself. At the time of static failure, the average
stress across the entire cross section would be the yield stress. However when the load is
repeatedly applied or the load fluctuates between tension and compression, the center points
experience a higher range of stress reversal than the applied average stress. These fluctuations
involving higher stress ranges, cause minute cracks at these points, which open up progressively
and spread with each application of the cyclic load and ultimately lead to rupture.

Fatigue failure can be defined as the number of cycles and hence time taken to reach a
pre-defined or a threshold failure criterion. Low cycle fatigue could be classified as the failures
occurring in few cycles to a few tens of thousands of cycles, normally under high stress/ strain
ranges. High cycle fatigue requires about several millions of cycles to initiate a failure. The type of
cyclic stresses applied on structural systems and the terminologies used in fatigue resistant
design are illustrated in this paper. The common form of presentation of fatigue data is by using
the S-N curve, where the total cyclic stress (S) is plotted against the number of cycles to failure
(N) in logarithmic scale. The point at which the S-N curve flattens off is called the endurance
limit. To carry out fatigue life predictions, a linear fatigue damage model is used in conjunction
with the relevant S-N curve.

The Effect of the Strain Rate on Soft Soil Behaviour under Cyclic
Loading

In this paper, cyclic triaxial loading tests were conducted on specimens of soft clay with
varying cyclic stresses and frequencies to investigate the performance of soft soil subgrade
subjected to cyclic loading. The laboratory results indicate that given the same level of cyclic
stress, the stability of clay subgrade is primarily dependent on the loading time with no
consistent frequency/train speed effect. There exists a critical level of cyclic stress between 60
and 80% of the monotonic shear strength, above which failure may occur regardless of the
loading frequency.

The nature that soils behave dependently on cyclic stress level rather than loading
frequency was investigated through the strain rate during cyclic loading, which is considered
responsible for the cyclic response of soft clays under various loading conditions. For loading
frequencies ranging from 0.1 to 5 Hz, it was found that the strain rate depended on the cyclic
stress ratio rather than the loading frequency, which implies that the cyclic stress level plays a
more important role in influencing the cyclic performance of soft soil
subgrade.