Objective
The objective of this project is to produce a crack growth sensor gauge which is accessible to SMEs for use in fatigue testing and in monitoring crack growth in structures, and which can be used for the control of fatigue testing machines. Fatigue accounts for 80% of all engineering failures in service, resulting in loss of life, in aircraft, shipping, railways and chemical plant accidents. Throughout the EU most of the independent fatigue testing is carried out almost exclusively by SME test houses, using equipment supplied by SME testing machine manufacturers. The methods currently used for measuring crack growth in fatigue include compliance, electrical potential drop, and optical techniques. All have disadvantages. An adhesive gauge, similar to a strain gauge, has the advantage that it is easy to use and versatile. Such gauges exist, but either they are stranded gauges where the resistance increases in steps, making them unsuitable for machine control, or they require expensive electronics the cost of which is above the affordable level of most SMEs. This development makes use of a resistive foil gauge originally developed at Cranfield University in Britain which is shaped geometrically such that the resistance increases linearly with crack length. A feasibility study has demonstrated that such a gauge can be manufactured, has a linear response and replicates well the crack in a steel fatigue specimen to which it is attached. Some electronic conditioning will be necessary to achieve the level of accuracy required for fatigue testing, but it is believed that this can be performed using commercially available electronic modules. Discussions with the prospective project partners have led to an initial target specification in which the prospective accuracy, resistance, price and robustness are defined. The consortium consists of two research laboratories, one specialising in electrical instrumentation as well as materials, the other in fatigue testing, and industrial companies in four groups: a manufacturer of gauges, fatigue testing laboratories, companies that monitor cracks in structures, and those that manufacture testing machines. A prototype gauge has been manufactured and evaluated in the exploratory phase. In the first year of the project the research partners will concentrate on development of the gauge itself. In the second year the gauges will be evaluated practically by the industrial partners under all kinds of test conditions. In parallel with this the machine manufacturers will construct a test machine specifically designed to control load in response to an input signal from the gauge. The main end result will be a novel, advanced gauge validated for a wide range of applications in laboratory and 'in service' tests by SME materials test houses. Fine tuning of the electrical output to ensuring good linearity and sensitivity at all crack lengths, such that any necessary correction methods can be handled by a normal personal computer (pc). Market analysis shows that the expected benefits from the sale of gauges, sale of electronics, increased European share of the world testing market and increased revenue from machines amount to 3 to 14 Mecu per year.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering aircraft
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
16674 Glyfada
Greece
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.