Applying a Method of Arresting Crack Growth on an Initiated Crack in a Production Facility; Experimental Results on Temporary Repairs

Many cracks are initiated at a production facility of cars. So, stop-holes are drilled at crack tips to reduce the stress concentration. However that method does not work to prevent the crack growth. That facility will be renovated next year, so some other method of arresting crack growth should be found before the renovation. Because of this situation, we investigate a method of preventing crack growth by using a crack arrester. Before installing the crack arrester in the production facility, we carried out experiments in a laboratory. It was confirmed that the crack arrester works well to prevent crack growth. Then, the crack arrester was used to prevent crack growth in the production facility. In this paper, the experimental results in the laboratory are introduced, and the effectiveness of the crack arrester to prevent fatigue crack growth is shown.