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Determination of Residual Fatigue Life of Welded Structures at Bucket-Wheel

Excavators through the Use of Fracture Mechanics

Article · January 2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.prostr.2018.12.014

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 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
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StructuralScienceDirect
Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000
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Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

ScienceDirect
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
ScienceDirect
Procedia
StructuralStructural Integrity 13
Integrity Procedia 00 (2018)
(2016) 79–84
000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
ECF22 - Loading and Environmental effects on Structural Integrity
ECF22 - Loading and Environmental effects on Structural Integrity
Determination of Residual Fatigue Life of Welded Structures at
DeterminationExcavators
Bucket-Wheel of Residualthrough Fatiguethe LifeUse of ofWelded
Fracture Structures
Mechanicsat
XV Portuguese Conference on Fracture, PCF 2016, 10-12 February 2016, Paço de Arcos, Portugal
Bucket-Wheel Excavators through the Use of Fracture Mechanics
M. Arsića, S. Bošnjakb, N. Gnjatovićb, S.A. Sedmakc, D. Arsićd, Z. Savića
Thermo-mechanical
M. Arsića, S. Bošnjak modeling
b
, N.forGnjatović
Institute
ofb,a11000
materials testing,
high
S.A. pressure
Sedmak
Belgrade, c turbine
, D. Arsić
Serbia, d blade
, Z. Savića of an
Innovation Centre
airplane Faculty
gas turbine
testing, 11000
of Mechanical
engine
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 11120 Belgrade, Serbia,
Institute
of the for materials Belgrade,
Enginering, Serbia,
11120, Belgrade, Serbia,
University
Faculty of Belgrade, Sciences,University
of Engineering Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,34000
of Kragujevac, 11120Kragujevac,
Belgrade, Serbia,
Serbia
Innovation Centre of the Facultyaof Mechanical Enginering,
b
P. Brandão , V. Infante , A.M. Deus * c
11120, Belgrade, Serbia,
Faculty of Engineering Sciences,University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
Abstract Portugal
b
IDMEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
Abstract Portugal
Thisc paper presents a methodological approach for the assessment of service life of vital welded structures of a bucket-wheel
CeFEMA, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
excavator Sch Rs 650/5x24 ('Thyssen Krupp', Germany) boom,Portugal subjected to cyclic loading with a variable amplitude through the
Thisofpaper
use presents tests
experimental a methodological
carried out in approach for the assessment
order to determine operationalofstrength
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of vitalofwelded
a fatiguestructures of a bucket-wheel
crack. Realized researches
excavator
and resultsSch Rs 650/5x24
presented in this('Thyssen
paper offer Krupp', Germany) boom,
great possibilities subjected
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behaviour of with
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variable amplitude
structures of through
the bucket-the
use
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experimental
Abstract By the tests carriedofout
application theinmeasurement
order to determine
deviceoperational strength
with 8 channels and growth and
for registration of aprocessing
fatigue crack. Realized
of electric researches
signals HBM
and
Spiderresults
8 andpresented
measurementin this paper
tapes HBMoffer6/350xXY31
great possibilities for the were
deformations analyses of behaviour
measured of vital structures
at vital welded welded structures
of the boom of the bucket-
in the area
wheel
of Duringboom. Byoperation,
the bucket-wheel,
their the application
made of modernof the
steels measurement
Staircraft
37.2 and St 52.3
engine device with 8 channels
in accordance
components arewith for registration
standard
subjected toDIN and processing
17100,
increasingly or demanding of electric
steels S235J2G3 signals
and
operating HBM
S355J2G3
conditions,
Spider 8 and the
in especially
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(HPT)
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these parts
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of time-dependent
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is St
creep. 37.2
A and
model St 52.3
using in
the accordance
finite elementwith standard
method (FEM)DIN 17100,
was or steels
developed,
deformations or initial cracks due to fatigue at vital welded structures. Tests that refer to the growth of the fatigue crack located at S235J2G3
in order to and
be S355J2G3
able to predict
in the
the accordance
creepjoint
welded with standard
behaviour
have been EN 10025-2.
of HPT
carriedblades. The
out byFlight objective
bendingdata of the
records
at three testwith
(FDR)
points is to
fordetermine
a specific
asymmetric ifload
there R is= a0.5
aircraft, possibility
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(R = σmin byof/ σaoccurrence
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usefor
weldedthestructures.
through three
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by obtainment
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with a singleThe
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ARM Tests
A-10. gathered was fed into
were performed the FEM
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of controlled force,simulations were run,
ranging between first
Fmax andwith
Fmina simplified
at the high-3D
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’Cracktronic’, to better establish the
obtainment of model, and then the
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the real 3D mesh
growth was obtained
carried out fromthrough
the blade thescrap. The
use of
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measurement gauge ARM A-10. in terms of displacement was observed, in particular at the trailing edge of the blade. Therefore such a
model can be useful in the goal of predicting turbine blade life, given a set of FDR data.
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review
Peer-review
© 2016 The under
under responsibility
responsibility
Authors. ofby
of the
Published the
ECF22 ECF22 organizers.
organizers.
Elsevier B.V.
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PCF 2016.
Peer-review
Keywords: under responsibility
bucket-wheel of thecondition,
excavator, stress ECF22 organizers.
crack, service life
Keywords: High Pressure Turbine Blade; Creep; Finite Element Method; 3D Model; Simulation.
Keywords: bucket-wheel excavator, stress condition, crack, service life

2452-3216 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the ECF22 organizers.
2452-3216 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review underauthor.
* Corresponding responsibility
Tel.: +351of the ECF22 organizers.
218419991.
E-mail address: amd@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

2452-3216 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PCF 2016.
2452-3216  2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review under responsibility of the ECF22 organizers.
10.1016/j.prostr.2018.12.014
80 M. Arsić et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 13 (2018) 79–84
2 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

1. Introduction

Vital welded structure of the boom of the bucket-wheel excavator Sch Rs 650/5x24 (‘Thyssen Krupp’, Germany),
presented in figure 1, is subjected to stresses that occur during the fabrication of components and assembling of
equipment (residual stresses), during the process of performing functional tasks (stationary and dynamic stresses), as
well as during the disturbed process of exploitation (non-stationary dynamic loads). Therefore, loads that occur at
components and elements of a bucket-wheel excavator structure can’t be presented in the form of a simple
mathematical function, i.e. they can’t be completely presented by a model in which variables or parameters evenly
change under operating conditions.
Tests performed on components and elements of structures of bucket-wheel excavators under operating conditions
enable the complete assessment of their condition, obtainment of necessary data for quality comparison and evaluation
of machines and structures, for the evaluation of load-carrying capacity of certain components and elements as well
as for determination of characteristics of conjoint operation of drive units and structures [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Basic
technical and technological properties of the bucket-wheel excavator Sch Rs 650/5x24, which operates at the largest
Kosovo open pit mine 'Dobro Selo', are as follows:
- design (theoretical) capacity Qt = 4212 [m3/h]
- volume of the bucket, taking into account the empty space Wbuc = 650 [l]
- maximum cut depth L = 5 [m]
- maximum cut height H = 24 [m]
- bucket-wheel drive power [2x450 kW] N = 900 [kW]
- bucket-wheel diameter Dbw = 10.2 [m]
- number of buckets at the bucket-wheel z = 21
- number of bucket unloads ns = 36 [min-1]
- specific resistance to digging, taking into account blade length kL = 109.6 [kN/m]
- overall drive utilization factor  = 0.935
- cutting speed Vr = 2.78 [m/s]

Figure 1: Schematic appearance of the bucket-wheel excavator Sch Rs 650/5x24

2. Dynamic loads at the bucket-wheel excavator during service

Most components and elements of vital structures of bucket-wheel excavators are subjected to complex dynamic
loads, which depend on conditions of exploitation (resistance to digging and own oscillations) in the stationary and
non-stationary operational regimes of bucket-wheel excavator drive systems during service. By studying the behaviour
of parent material and welded joints of vital structures subjected to variable loading it was determined that nodes are
critical locations, because 80% of fatigue cracks occur there, figure 2.
Measuring tapes were applied in order to determine deformations and calculate the stresses at the elements of the
vital welded structures of the boom in the bucket-wheel area, made of steels St 37.2 and St 52.3 in accordance with
standard DIN 17100, or to put it differently made of steels S235J2G3 and S355J2G3, in accordance with standard DIN
EN 10025-2 [8]. The objective of the stress condition check is to determine whether there is a possibility of occurrence
of plastic deformations or initial cracks due to fatigue. Properties of structural non-alloyed steels S235J2G3 and
S355J2G3 of which metal sheets and profiles were made are presented in tables 1 and 2.
 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 3
M. Arsić et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 13 (2018) 79–84 81

Figure 2. Appearance of a node at the welded structure and locations at which fatigue cracks mainly occur

Table 1. Chemical composition, mass percentage [8]

Steel C [%] Si [%] Mn [%] P [%] S [%] Cu[%]
S235J2G3 ≤ 0,19 - ≤ 1,50 ≤ 0,045 ≤ 0,045 ≤ 0.60
S355J2G3 ≤ 0,23 ≤ 0,60 ≤ 1.70 ≤ 0.045 ≤ 0.045 ≤ 0.60

Table 2. Mechanical properties [8]

Steel Yield strength YS [N/mm2] Tensile strength TS [N/mm2] Elongation A5 [%]
S235J2G3 235 360 - 510 24
S355J2G3 355 470 - 630 22

Measurements of strains at elements of the vital welded structures in the bucket-wheel area have been performed
by 12 measurement tapes HBM 6/350xXY31. Structure of measurement equipment for registration and processing of
electric signals (HBM Spider 8 – measurement device with 8 channels) is shown in figure 3.
In figure 4 locations where gauges for measurement of strains at the elements of vital welded structures of the boom
in the bucket-wheel area subjected to various conditions of coal mining (dynamic loading) are shown.

Figure 3. Appearance of the measurement equipment for registration and processing of electric signals (HBM Spider 8 – measurement device)
482 Author name / Structural
M. Arsić Integrity Structural
et al. / Procedia Procedia 00 (2018)13
Integrity 000–000
(2018) 79–84

Figure 4. Welded structure of the bucket-wheel boom and spots where strain gauges were located

Locations where deformations were measured at vertical girders (M1–M4), horizontal girders (M5–M8) and
diagonals (M9–M12) were selected on the basis of design and technical documentation, in order to enable insight in
stress condition at characteristic locations of the welded structure of the boom in the area of the bucket-wheel.
On the basis of calculated stresses at the elements of the vital welded structure of the boom in the area of the bucket-
wheel (figure 4), presented in tables 3 and 4, it can be concluded that stresses are in linear elastic area and that they
are 50% lower than yield stress for steels S235J2G3 and S355J2G3. Highest values of stress were determined for
diagonals.

Table 3. Calculated stresses at vertical and horizontal girders of the boom structure in the bucket-wheel area,  1 [MPa]
Operational mode of the bucket-wheel excavator Measurement locations
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8
Average load during the digging of loose overburden 54.8 58.2 54.2 46.4 45.7 47.1 45.3 42.8
Full cut load during the digging of loose overburden 57.3 62.8 57.3 50.6 48.6 50.9 48.1 44.3
Average load during the digging of compact grey clay 67.6 70.1 59.9 53.2 55.1 57.4 54.2 48.8
Full cut load during the digging of compact grey clay 73.9 73.9 67.3 58.6 59.3 62.1 60.7 54.3

Table 4. Calculated stresses at diagonals of the boom structure in the bucket-wheel area,  1 [MPa]
Operational mode of the bucket-wheel excavator Measurement locations
M9 M10 M11 M12
Average load during the digging of loose overburden 65.5 59.3 60.5 54.2
Full cut load during the digging of loose overburden 97.7 63.9 67.7 57.6
Average load during the digging of compact grey clay 114.9 75.6 69.2 62.7
Full cut load during the digging of compact grey clay 145.5 108.4 102.8 93.1

Taking into account the fact that tests by which the stress condition of elements of the vital welded structure of the
bucket-wheel boom was determined did not comprise boundary loads which occur during the digging of petrified rock
masses, when due to impact loads bucket-wheel halts, the limit of useful load can’t be determined.
 M. Arsić et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 13 (2018) 79–84 83
Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 5

3. Determination of fracture mechanics parameters

Curve a – N (crack length vs number of load cycles), figure 5, shows that growth of initial crack from 2 mm to 3.58
mm starts slowly, and rapidly progresses afterwards.

Figure 5. An experimentally obtained a – N curve

Values of measured and calculated parameters of fracture mechanics for the highest possible value of the stress
range Δσ = 145.5 MPa (the mean value of fatigue crack growth rate for 4 specimens) are as follows:
Y(a/W) = 2.32 – parameter which depends on specimen geometry and crack shape,
Δσ = 145.5 MPa – highest possible value of the stress range,
Cp = 1.58ꞏ10-14 - Paris-Erdogan equation constant,
mp = 3.55 - Paris-Erdogan equation constant,
KIc = 126.5 MPa√m - critical value of stress intensity,
ao = 2 mm – length of initial crack that existed at tested specimens,
acr = 44.65 mm – critical length of edge crack calculated by [9]:
1 4000
acr  ( )2 
44.65 
0.004455m (1)
3.14 145.5  2.32
For the above mentioned welded structure the remaining number of load cycles for the bucket-wheel excavator is
obtained as follows:
da
 C p  (K )m P (2)
dN

 
1  1 1 
Na0 Nack  N   
mp  m p 2 m p 2 
mp  2 m m
( )  C  f p   2   p  a0 2 acr 2 
2 (3)
 
1 1014  1 1 
   1.182 107 cycles

3.55 3.55 2 3.55 2 
3.55  2  
( ) 1.55  2.323.55  3.14 2 145.53.55  0.002 2 0.04455 2 
2
For the average number of operating hours per year Ty = 4250 h, the overall number of stress variation cycles is:

Ny  60  Ty  nBW  nB  60  4250  4.86  21  2.6 106 cycles / year (4)

84 M. Arsić et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 13 (2018) 79–84
6 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

where:
Ty = 4250 h – average number of operating hours of the bucket-wheel excavator per year,
nBW = 4.86 rpm – number of revolutions of the bucket-wheel,
nB - number of buckets.
On the basis of determined parameters of fracture mechanics, the service life of the carrying welded structure in the
area of the bucket-wheel at maximum expected load after the repair of the existing damage in case of initiation of a
new edge crack in the longitudinal direction of sheet metal is being obtained from:

N 1.182 107
n   4.55 years (5)
NU 2.6 106

4. Conclusion

Results presented in this paper offer possibilities to designers of bucket-wheel excavators to carry out analysis for
vital welded structure of the boom in the bucket-wheel area. Such analysis enables determination of modifications of
mechanical properties of welded joint materials due to variation of a large number of influential factors because of the
heterogeneity of their structure (parent material, heat affected zone, weld metal), in order to get safer structures or
reduce undesirable effects to bearable values, i.e. to realize the favorable structural solution of the bucket-wheel
excavator as a whole.
Taking into account the fact that tests, by which the stress condition of elements of the vital welded structure of the
bucket-wheel boom was determined, did not comprise boundary loads which occur during the digging of petrified
rock masses, when due to impact loads bucket-wheel halts, the limit of useful load can’t be determined.

Acknowledgments

Authors wish to thank the Ministry of education, science and technological development for supporting the project
TR 35006.

References

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