The investigation of the mechanical properties of rock mass can be effectively carried out through rock-like material experiments. In this study, polystyrene foam particles were utilized as a novel material for simulating initial damage within rocks. Our research involved the development of sandstone-like materials with comparable mechanical properties to actual sandstone. These materials were then subjected to orthogonal mechanical tests, allowing us to identify the key factors that have a substantial impact on the mechanical parameters of sandstone-like rocks. The influencing factors considered in the orthogonal mechanical tests were the proportion of aggregate and binder, the proportion of polystyrene foam in the entire model, the proportion of binder and regulator, and the size of polystyrene foam. Five levels were set for each factor, and mechanical parameters such as compressive strength, tensile strength, elastic modulus, axial strain, and Poisson’s ratio were tested for each group of samples. The changes in mechanical parameters with the levels of the above four factors were studied. The study found that modifying the proportion of aggregate to binder can alter the elastic modulus, tensile strength, and compressive strength values of sandstone-like material. The size of polystyrene foam can be modified to alter the axial strain values of sandstone-like materials. Additionally, adjusting the ratio of binder and regulator can modify the value of Poisson’s ratio. The comparison of mechanical parameters between sandstone-like samples and sandstone reveals that sandstone-like materials can better simulate the deformation and failure mechanisms of sandstone. The error in the main mechanical parameters, such as modulus of elasticity, strength, and Poisson’s ratio, is less than 7%, indicating a greater resemblance between sandstone-like materials and sandstone. Therefore, sandstone-like materials can be used to investigate the deformation law, damage evolution law, and failure mechanism of sandstone. This can help alleviate the difficulty of obtaining specimens of deep damaged rock and the high cost of testing.

In order to investigate the effect of fissure inclination on the mechanical properties, deformation, and crack evolution of the surrounding rock in the roadway, uniaxial compression experiments were conducted on sandstone-like materials with prefabricated fissures. The high-speed camera and DIC (digital image correlation) method were employed to analyze the strain distribution and the crack evolution of the specimen. The results demonstrated that the presence of fissures reduces the stress for crack initiation, with intact specimens producing new cracks from about 75% of peak strength and fissured specimens producing new cracks from 50% to 60% of peak strength. The fissure reduced the strength and elastic modulus of the specimen while increasing the strain. The fissure inclination of 45° exhibited the most significant changes compared to the intact specimen. The peak strength and elastic modulus decreased by 54.52% and 35.95%, respectively, and the strain increased by 151.42%. The intact specimen and specimen with 90° inclination are mainly distributed with the shear crack, tensile crack, and far-field crack, which are mainly tensile–tension damage; specimens with 0~75° inclination are mainly distributed with the wing crack, anti-wing crack, oblique secondary crack, and coplanar secondary crack, which are mainly shear slip damage. The direction of the extension of cracks is related to the fissure inclination. For specimens with 0° inclination, the new cracks mainly propagate in the direction perpendicular to the fissure; for specimens with 30° and 45° inclinations, the new cracks mainly propagate in the direction parallel and perpendicular to the fissure; for specimens with 60° and 75° inclinations, the new cracks propagate in the direction parallel to the fissure; and for specimens with 90° inclination, the new cracks propagate in the direction parallel to the fissure.

The Ti-6Al-4V alloy is a typical α + β type titanium alloy and is widely used in the manufacture of aero-engine fans, compressor discs and blades. The working life of modern aero-engine components is usually required to reach more than 10⁸ cycles, which makes the infinite life design based on the traditional fatigue limit unsafe. In this study, through symmetrical loading high-cycle fatigue tests on Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy, a nonlinear cumulative damage life prediction model was established. Further very-high-cycle fatigue tests of titanium alloys were carried out. The variation law of plastic strain energy in the evolution process of very-high-cycle fatigue damage of titanium alloy materials was described by introducing the internal stress parameter. A prediction model for the very-high-cycle fatigue life of titanium alloys was established, and the sensitivity analysis of model parameters was carried out. The results show that the established high-cycle/very-high-cycle fatigue models can fit the test data well. Moreover, based on the optimized model parameters through sensitivity analysis, the average error of the prediction results has decreased from 59% to 38%. The research aims to provide a model or method for predicting the engineering life of titanium alloys in the high-cycle/very-high-cycle range.

To improve the lubrication performance of double involute gears(DIGs) and reduce tooth surface wear, this paper establishes a quasi-static tooth surface wear (TSW) analysis model according to the modified Archard wear equation under the mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) condition, and proposes a numerical calculation method for the lubrication characteristics considering the influence of TSW based on the coupling relationship between TSW, meshing characteristics and lubrication characteristics. Based on this, the effect of TSW on lubrication characteristics with the working condition parameters, tooth waist order parameters and roughness is also studied. The research shows that the effect of TSW on the lubrication characteristics of DIGs is closely related to the accumulated tooth surface wear depth. TSW can deteriorate the lubrication state between meshing tooth surfaces, the early TSW under the mixed EHL state has less effect on its lubrication characteristics, and has significant influence on the lubrication characteristics near the meshing in and meshing out positions. Under the conditions of low velocity, high torque and large roughness, TSW has a greater effect on the lubrication characteristics.However, the influence of TSW on the lubrication characteristics is small with the variation of tooth waist order parameters.