Engine components subjected to cyclic thermal and mechanical loads may experience low-cycle or high-cycle fatigue failures. In particular, both of these failures can easily occur in aluminum cylinder heads, which are exposed to high temperatures and combustion pressures. Predicting the fatigue characteristics of the cylinder head are very important in the design stage of engine development. In this study, a finite element analysis was performed to predict the low-cycle thermal fatigue around exhaust ports of the cylinder head. Temperature distributions are obtained through the heat transfer analysis considering thermal cyclic test. The analysis result involves large plastic deformations, indicating compressive stresses at high temperatures and subsequently turn into tensile stresses at cold conditions. And the results showed that the critical regions such as exhaust port with large plastic strains coincided well with crack locations from thermal cyclic test. Next, design changes were made to the critical areas of the exhaust ports, and the results showed that the durability was improved by about 60% over the initial model and there were no problems in the thermal fatigue test.

The effect of alpha phase on the fatigue properties of Fe-29%Ni-17%Co low thermal expansion alloy was investigated. Two kinds of alloys (Base alloy and Alpha alloy) were prepared by controlling the minimal alloy composition. Microstructure observation, tensile, high-cycle fatigue, and low-cycle fatigue results were measured in this study. The Base alloy microstructure showed typical austenite γ phase. Alpha alloy represented the dispersed phase in the austenite γ matrix. As a result of tensile testing, Alpha alloy was found to have higher strengths (Y.S. & T.S.) and lower elongation compared to those of the Base alloy. High cycle fatigue results showed that Alpha alloy had a higher fatigue limit (360MPa) than that (330MPa) of the Base alloy. The Alpha alloy exhibited the superior high cycle fatigue property in all of the fatigue stress conditions. SEM fractography results showed that the alpha phase could act to effectively retard both fatigue crack initiation and crack propagation. In the case of low-cycle fatigue, the Base alloy had longer fatigue life in the high plastic strain amplitude region and the Alpha alloy showed better fatigue property only in the low plastic strain amplitude region. The fatigue deformation behavior of the Fe-29%Ni-17%Co alloy was also discussed as related with its microstructure.

Thermo-mechanical fatigue cracks on the turbine housing of turbochargers are often observed in currently developed gasoline engines for them to adopt lightness and higher performance levels. Maximum gas temperatures of gasoline engines usually exceed 950℃ under engine test conditions. In order to predict thermo-mechanical failures by simulation method, it is essential to consider temperature-dependent inelastic materials and inhomogeneous temperature distributions undergoing thermal cyclic loads. This paper presented the analytical methods to calculate thermal stresses and plastic strain ranges for the prediction of fatigue failures on the basis of motoring test mode, which is commonly used for accelerated engine endurance test. The analysis results showed that the localized critical regions with large plastic strains coincided well with crack locations from a thermal shock test.

자동차, 항공기 및 기타 산업에서 복합재료의 사용은 증가되어 왔고 활발한 연구가 진행되고 있다. 이러한 복합재료중의 하나인 carbon-epoxy 복합재료의 열 특성에 관하여 알아보았다. 반복적인 냉각과 가열이 부가된 후 복합재료의 탄성계수의 변화를 관찰하여 봄으로써 복합재료가 가지고 있는 여러 열 특성에 관하여 여러 열 특성에 관하여 연구하였다. 이 연구에서는 G(sub)13값은 약한 감소하기는 하였으나 별다른 변화를 보이지 않았으며 열충격의 경우가 열피로의 경우보다 변화량이 작았다. E1값은 가해진 온도와 가열 횟수에 따라하여 조금씩 증가하였고, E2, G(sub)23값은 열피로의 경우 처음에는 어느 정도 그 값이 감소하나 가해진 횟수에는 큰 영향을 받지 않았으며 열충격의 경우에는 온도에 따라 다른 현상을 보였다.

자동차, 항공기 및 기타 산업에서 복합재료의 사용은 증가되어 왔고 활발한 연구가 진행되고 있다. 이러한 복합재료중의 하나인 Carbon-epoxy 복합재료의 열 특성에 관하여 알아보았다. 반복적인 냉각과 가열이 부가되는 열 피로에서 복합재료의 탄성계수의 변화를 관찰하여 봄으로써 복합재료가 가지고 있는 여러 열 특성에 관하여 연구하였다. 일반적으로 복합재료는 온도가 증가하면 탄성계수가 감소한다고 알려져 있다. 이러한 결과와는 달리 본 연구에서 수행한 실험에서는 열 피로가 부가되었을 때에는 어느 정도 온도까지는 탄성계수가 증가하다가 다시 감소하는 특이한 현상을 관찰할 수 있었다.