The previous two STRUCTURE magazine articles (General Principles of Fatigue and Fracture, Part 1, August 2016 and AISC and Damage Tolerance Approaches, Part 2, November 2016), reviewed the fundamental principles of cracking and how to design for fatigue and fracture. This article presents three case studies that illustrate how an engineer can use this guidance to address project challenges. The intent of this article is to move from the theoretical to the practical, and demonstrate that there is a realistic place for the more developed methodologies of fatigue and fracture mitigation. …
Author Archives : Paul W. McMullin, Ph.D., S.E.
Paul McMullin, Ph.D., S.E. is a Founding Partner at Ingenium Design in Salt Lake City. He is an Adjunct Professor and the lead editor of the Architect’s Guidebooks to Structures series. Paul can be reached at Paulm@ingeniumdesign.us.
Continuing on the foundation established in the last article (STRUCTURE, August 2016), let’s now look at two fatigue design methodologies: AISC and Damage Tolerance. AISC is based on the safe life philosophy – if the engineer keeps the stresses low enough, the structure will perform adequately. It also assumes cracking occurs at the end of the structure’s life. …
The intent of this 3-part series is to expand the engineer’s understanding of the realities and opportunities in fatigue and fracture design. After reading this segment, the reader may have more questions than answers. This is not because the reader will not learn anything, but because they will better know the questions they should be asking. …