Topic : Detection of Delamination Crack in Composite Machine Elements

Faculty Involved : Prof. S. K. Maiti (Guide) and S. S. Kulkarni (Co-Guide)

Many catastrophic accidents of engineered systems (see figure below) occur
because of failure initiating at a single component level. This leads to lot of loss
to property and lives and disruption of services. To guard against such situations
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has become an important field. The
methods of SHM help to find out the status of degradation, or crack growth
through components. Of late, vibration based monitoring of component health
has become an area of intensive research. In this approach the vibration
response of components are regularly obtained and these are analysed to find
out the size and location of defect, or crack, so that timely preventive action can
be taken.
Most of the studies done so far have considered detection of single and multiple
cracks in metallic components. Composite materials are abundantly used now a
day in aircrafts, ship building and automobiles. Though composites have higher
strength to weight ratio, they are weak against the development of delamination,
or inter-layer cracks. The detection of delamination, or cracks oriented parallel
to the longitudinal direction in beam like elements (see figure below) is a
challenge. This project is planned to address such a problem.

The project would involve analytical modelling, finite element analysis and
experiments. A couple of Ph.D. and PG students have already done some
ground work for the solution of the problem. The new student can benefit from
their works.
Students with good background in strength of materials, finite element method
and vibrations will have advantage to work on the problem.
For more details contact Prof S K Maiti (Room No. 310A, 2 nd Floor of ME Dept)

PhD Topic: Hydrogen Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking, Modelling and

Experiment
(2015 December)
Guiding faculty: Prof S K Maiti (Room 310A) and Prof D N Pawaskar
(Room 301B)
Annual loss to the exchequer of any country due to corrosion is quite
substantial. Out of this menace, the loss due to hydrogen assisted stress
corrosion cracking is quite substantial. Owing to the presence of hydrogen in
the environment surrounding a component, material loses its mechanical,
fracture and fatigue, properties. Traditionally, protection measures against the
evil were based on proper material selection, anti-corrosive coating, electrochemical methods, etc., or a combination of all these. Of late, substantial efforts
have been directed to understand the process of crack propagation and link the
degradation effects quantitatively to the changes in material mechanical
properties and crack propagation characteristics. Majority of the investigations
reported on the issues so far deal with steel alloys. A wide band of machine and
structural constructions involves welded constructions. Welded zone behave
very differently than the virgin materials in relation to the hydrogen assisted
stress corrosion cracking (HASCC). Specially, the weld centre and heat affected
zone get affected in terms of the mechanical properties, hydrogen diffusivity
and crack propagation resistances.
The study of the HASCC involves investigation into the coupled processes of
hydrogen diffusion and crack propagation. In the proposed research project, the
diffusion process will be analysed using analytical and/or numerical methods.
The crack extension will be studied using the FE methods. Therefore, the work
will involve analytical modelling, FE modelling and/or use of FE software,
knowledge of fracture mechanics, and experimental methodologies. Candidates
with good academic record and strong interest in the areas are only welcome.