Tom Irvine One of the most counterintuitive repair techniques in structural engineering is also one of the oldest: to stop a fatigue crack from growing, you drill a hole at its tip. Adding material loss to an already cracked structure seems like exactly the wrong prescription —… Read more
By Tom Irvine | Structural Integrity Series — Gatwick Airport Railway Station, United Kingdom The photograph above was taken at Gatwick Airport Railway Station — the busiest airport rail station in the United Kingdom, serving both the Gatwick Express and Southern/Thameslink services with approximately 19… Read more
By Tom Irvine The spruce soundboard of a concert grand piano and the sheet-steel housing of an industrial gearbox have more in common than their outward appearances suggest. Both are thin panels driven into vibration by an internal source. Both radiate sound into the surrounding… Read more
A reader who leads Product Development for an aeronautical supplier of cabin electronics — seat power systems and security cameras — asked whether VibrationData covers electromagnetic emission and thermal management, particularly for engineers who are not strong on the simulation side. This post is written… Read more
By Tom Irvine | Marine Corrosion Series — Madeira, Portugal (ISO 9223 Category C5) The photograph below was taken in Funchal, Madeira on 4 July 2026. It shows the corner bracket connection of a painted mild steel railing to a rendered concrete fascia on a… Read more
By Tom Irvine While enjoying a glass of orange juice at an outdoor café in Madeira, Portugal on a sunny Independence Day morning, I noticed the reusable stainless steel straw resting across the glass — its elegant curved bend a perfect reminder that one of… Read more
This is the second post in a series on marine corrosion observed at coastal infrastructure in Madeira, Portugal, July 2026. Part 1 covered a severely corroded bolt and nut at a seaside retaining wall. Here we examine two additional specimens from the same location: a… Read more
Photograph taken at a seaside retaining wall in Madeira, Portugal, July 2026. The bolt and nut shown are carbon steel — heavily corroded after prolonged exposure to the Atlantic marine environment.Figure 1. Severely corroded carbon steel bolt and nut at a seaside retaining wall, Madeira,… Read more
Image Courtesy of http://www.mbrosia.co.kr/en/product/product0101.php Ultrasonic fatigue testing at 20 kHz has become the standard method for characterizing material fatigue in the Very High Cycle Fatigue (VHCF) regime — beyond 107 cycles, extending to 109 (gigacycle) and beyond. At 20 kHz, a test that would require… Read more
ZW12 (Mg–1Zn–2Y wt.%) is a research-stage magnesium alloy developed at Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon (Geesthacht, Germany) targeting lightweight structural applications under cyclic loading. Recent work presented at IFC14 (14th International Fatigue Congress, 2026) by Trujillo-Tadeo et al. reveals that ZW12’s fatigue and corrosion-fatigue performance is strongly microstructure-dependent… Read more