Stress Intensity Factors for Semi-Elliptical Surface Cracks With Flaw Aspect Ratio Beyond the ASME XI Limit

Author(s):  
Christian Malekian ◽  
Eric Wyart ◽  
Michael Savelsberg ◽  
Anne Teughels ◽  
Pierre-Eric Fouquet ◽  
...  

Most of the literature about fracture mechanics considers cracks having an elliptical shape with a flaw aspect ratio a/l lower or equal to 0.5 where ‘a’ is the crack depth and ‘l’ the total length of the crack. This is also case in the ASME XI Appendix A where Stress Intensity Factors KI formulations are given for a large range of crack depths and for a flaw aspect ratio a/l between 0 and 0.5. The limitation to 0.5 corresponds to a semi-circular shape for surface cracks and to a circular shape for subsurface cracks. This limitation does not seem to be inspired by a theoretical limitation nor by a computational limit. Moreover, it appears that limiting the ratio a/l to 0.5 may generate in some cases some unnecessary conservatism in flaw analysis. The present article specifically deals with the more unusual narrow cracks having a/l >0.5, in the case of surface cracks in infinite flat plates. Several Finite-Elements calculations are performed to compute KI for a large range of crack depths and for 4 typical load cases (uniform, linear, quadratic and cubic). The results can be presented with the same formalism as in the ASME XI Appendix A, such that the work can provide an extension of the ASME coefficients in table A-3320-1&2. By doing the study, one had the opportunity to compare the results obtained by two different Finite-Elements softwares (Systus and Ansys), each one with a different cracked mesh. In addition, a comparison has been made for some cases with results obtained by a XFEM approach (eXtended Finite-Element Method), where the crack does not need to be meshed in the same way as in classical Finite-Elements. The results indicate how the KI can be reduced when considering the real flaw aspect ratio instead of the conventional semi-circular flaw shape. They also show that, for specific theoretical stress distributions, it is not always possible to reduce the analysis of KI to only 2 points, namely the crack surface point and the crack deepest point. The crack growth evaluation of such unusual crack shape should still be investigated to verify whether simple rules can be established to estimate the evolution of the crack front.

2011 ◽  
Vol 214 ◽  
pp. 192-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Al Emran Ismail ◽  
Ahmad Kamal Ariffin ◽  
Shahrum Abdullah ◽  
Mariyam Jameelah Ghazali ◽  
Ruslizam Daud

This study presents a numerical investigation on the stress intensity factors (SIF), K of surface cracks in round bars that were obtained under pure torsion loadings or mode III. ANSYS finite element analysis (FEA) was used to determine the SIFs along the crack front of surface cracks embedded in the solid circular bars. 20-node isoparametric singular elements were used around the crack tip by shifting the mid-side node ¼-position close to a crack tip. Different crack aspect ratio, a/b were used ranging between 0.0 to 1.2 and relative crack depth, a/D were ranged between 0.1 to 0.6. Mode I SIF, KI obtained under bending moment was used to validate the proposed model and it was assumed this proposed model validated for analyzing mode III problems. It was found that, the mode II SIF, FII and mode III SIF, FIII were dependent on the crack geometries and the sites of crack growth were also dependent on a/b and a/D.


2014 ◽  
Vol 986-987 ◽  
pp. 882-886
Author(s):  
Hong Yu Qi ◽  
Peng Chao Guo

External surface cracks can occur in cylindrical vessels due to damage and propagate in the manufacturing process and during service life. Most of research focuses on stress intensity factors for surface cracks with low aspect ratios, i.e., a/c ≤1.0. Situation may well arise where the aspect ratio of cracks is larger than one. An external longitudinal surface crack is assumed to be subjected to different types of hoop stress distributions acting perpendicular to the crack faces. The stress intensity factors (SIFs) along the crack front were determined through the three-dimensional finite element method. Then these results are used to compute approximate values of SIFs in the case of complex loadings by employing both the superposition principle and the power series expansions of the actual hoop stresses. It is found that the maximum stress intensity factor for external surface cracks with high aspect ratio occurs at different point to that with low aspect ratio.


1977 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 442-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Gyekenyesi ◽  
A. Mendelson

The line method of analysis is applied to the Navier-Cauchy equations of elastic equilibrium to calculate the displacement field in a finite geometry bar containing a variable depth rectangular surface crack under extensionally applied uniform loading. The application of this method to these equations leads to coupled sets of simultaneous ordinary differential equations whose solutions are obtained along sets of lines in a discretized region. Using the obtained displacement field, normal stresses, and the stress-intensity factor variation along the crack periphery are calculated for different crack depth to bar thickness ratios. Crack opening displacements and stress-intensity factors are also obtained for a through-thickness, center-cracked bar with variable thickness. The reported results show a considerable potential for using this method in calculating stress-intensity factors for commonly encountered surface crack geometries in finite solids.


1980 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 342-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Newman ◽  
I. S. Raju

The purpose of this paper is to present stress-intensity factors for a wide range of semi-elliptical surface cracks on the inside of pressurized cylinders. The ratio of crack depth to crack length ranged from 0.2 to 1; the ratio of crack depth to wall thickness ranged from 0.2 to 0.8; and the ratio of wall thickness to vessel radius was 0.1 to 0.25. The stress-intensity factors were calculated by a three-dimensional finite-element method. The finite-element models employ singularity elements along the crack front and linear-strain elements elsewhere. The models had about 6500 degrees of freedom. The stress-intensity factors were evaluated from a nodal-force method. An equation for the stress-intensity factors was obtained from the results of the present analysis. The equation applies over a wide range of configuration parameters and was within about 5 percent of the present results. A comparison was also made between the present results and other analyses of internal surface cracks in cylinders. The results from a boundary-integral equation method were in good agreement (± 2 percent) and those from another finite-element method were in fair agreement (± 8 percent) with the present results.


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