In article
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jim beam said:Michael Press said:In article
<[email hidden]>,Skippy said:"jim beam" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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> be careful of terminology. while there is a lot of confusion about which
> term describes what in certain quarters, where i came from, endurance
> limit describes the "knee" in the s-n graph of mild steel, while fatigue
> limit describes the stress level to survive an arbitrary number of stress
> cycles, say 10^7. it's the design, stress risers, material quality, etc.,
> that determine fatigue life more than anything else, particularly once you
> get away from the simple alloys systems. don't be afraid of properly
> deployed aluminum alloys - aluminum alloy wings stay on planes for a good
> long time....
>
And am I right in thinking they're held on with rivets, mostly? That got me
wondering about this cracking-round-eyelets thing that rattles on and on in
RBT. I saw someone on TV restoring an aircraft. drilling the holes for the
rivets involved at least a 3 step process (pilot, bigger drill, finishing
drill). I assumed this was to produce a smooth round hole. I'm willing to
believe that holes in rims are a one step process. This could leave a
comparatively rough and ovalised hole. Could this lead to more serious
crack propogation?Bicycle rim holes should be finished with a grommet so
machining is a negligible contribution to rim hole
failure. Experience of many people show that thick
anodizing of bicycle rims is a much greater contributor to
rim failure.sorry, but there's no proven connection with anodizing. the originator
of this allegation used a dye penetrant test as "proof". all dye
penetrant testing shows is that cracking is present - it is entirely
uninformative as to cause. deployment of an inappropriate test should
warn of flawed theory, but the fact that cracking is often out of plane
with any potential anodizing cracks shows just how wildly off base it
really is. please don't propagate this old wives tale any more michael.
Aluminum oxide and aluminum have different bulk physical
characteristics. Among these are ductility and elastic
modulus. A bicycle rim undergoes considerable strain.
Different things can happen. The differential of
elasticity between the Al2O3 and Al results in a shear
stress at the boundary. This could result in a relative
displacement of the two layers, and this would be observed
as exfoliation of the Al2O3 in flakes. This is not
observed. The boundary between the Al and the Al2O3 is not
a sharp one, but gradual, so the shear stress is not
large.
Another possibility is that the low tensile strength of
the Al2¬3 results in fracture of the Al2O3 layer. This is
observed. The fractures produce a stress riser propogating
the crack into the Al progressively weakening it until the
rim fails.
The same phenomenon is experieneced when a scab forms over
a wound. If the skin is stretched the scab can crack and
open the wound.
--
Michael Press