Examination on Flaw Interactions in a Plate Subjected to Tensile and Bending Loads

Engineering Critical Assessment (ECA) procedure, which is a method to evaluate the integrity of various structures with embedded crack, surface crack and multiple cracks and so on. In BS7910, the acceptability of flaws in metallic structures is typically dealt with in terms of stress intensity factor solution. For the case with more than two flaws, BS7910 provides various flaw interaction rules. While such flaw interaction rules are developed based on many parametric studies, it is generally known to lead to very conservative results. In this study, the stress intensity factor solutions in a plate with multiple cracks are evaluated. Target structure is a simple plate subjected to tensile and bending loads, and a series of finite element analysis is carried out using ABAQUS. In addition, the results are validated against previous studies available in literatures. Based on the study, the distance criteria for multiple cracks in PD6493 and BS 7910 are found to be overly conservative. Therefore, a parametric investigation regarding the distance between multiple cracks is examined to reduce the overly conservative estimation in existing standards.

A Method for Establishing the Central Crack Stress Intensity Factor Database for Probabilistic Risk Assessment Based on the Universal Weight Function

Probabilistic failure risk assessment is becoming important in the field of airworthiness. In the fracture mechanics module of probabilistic failure risk assessment, it is important to efficiently and accurately calculate the stress intensity factors (SIFs). At present, the weight function method (WFM), especially the universal weight functions (UWFs) proposed by Glinka and Shen, has been adopted to calculate SIFs with high accuracy and computational efficiency. However, the concrete coefficients in the universal weight functions remain unknown, and the rules of the geometry parameters and these coefficients have not yet been summarized, which hinders their subsequent use. In this article, the specific type of embedded crack-central crack is under discussion, and the derivation of the UWF is introduced. The response surface method (RSM), as a means of database establishment, is used to construct the relations between the geometric parameters including the length and thickness of a three-dimensional finite plate and coefficients in the UWF. The errors of the SIF calculation between the UWF and finite element results are less than 2 MPa m within a certain range. For the evaluation of the boundary effect on central cracks, the difference between finite and infinite plates is discussed. In addition, considering the complexity of the general off-centre crack, an approximation method has been proposed to transform the off-centre crack to the central crack. The results show that the method can be applied with high precision in specific situations and stresses the necessity of follow-up research on general off-centre cracks.

Stress Intensity Factors for Embedded, Surface, and Corner Cracks in Finite-Thickness Plates Subjected to Tensile Loading

The aim of this study is to obtain the stress intensity factor (SIF) along the crack front of elliptical cracks located in finite-thickness plates subjected to imposed displacement or applied tensile load, for different crack geometries (relative depths and aspect ratios) and crack configurations (embedded, surface, and corner). The SIF was calculated from the J-integral, obtained by the finite element method. The results show how the SIF grows with the increase in the relative crack depth and with the decrease in the aspect ratio, with the corner crack being the most dangerous configuration and the embedded crack the most favorable configuration. By increasing the plate length, the SIF rises when the plate is under imposed displacement and decreases when the plate is subjected to applied tensile load, both cases tending towards the same SIF curve.

Extension of PASCAL4 Code for Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics Analysis of Reactor Pressure Vessel in Boiling Water Reactor

In Japan, Japan Atomic Energy Agency has developed a probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis code, PASCAL4, for probabilistic evaluation of reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) in pressurized water reactors (PWRs) considering neutron irradiation embrittlement and pressurized thermal shock (PTS) events. Besides severe PTS events, however, transients associated with normal operations, such as the cooldown and heatup transients associated with reactor shutdown and startup, respectively, should also be considered in the integrity assessment of RPVs in both PWRs and boiling water reactors (BWRs). With regard to a heatup transient, because temperature is at its minimum, and tensile stress at its maximum on the RPV outer surface, outer surface crack and embedded crack near the RPV outer surface should be taken into account. To extend the applicability of PASCAL4, we improved the code to include analysis functions for these cracks. The improved PASCAL4 can be used to run PFM analyses of RPVs subjected to both cooldown (including PTS) and heatup transients. In this paper, improvements made to PASCAL4 are firstly described, including the incorporated stress intensity factor solutions and the corresponding calculation methods for vessel outer surface crack and embedded crack near the outer surface. Using the improved PASCAL4, PFM analysis examples for a Japanese BWR-type model RPV subjected to thermal transients including a low temperature overpressure event and a heatup transient are presented.

The Mechanical Response of a Cantilever Beam With an Embedded Crack With Non-Linear Crack Surface Closure Effects

This study addresses the crack surfaces closure effects of a cracked cantilever beam subjected to transverse force applied at its free end under static loading. A crack closure method is developed as needed to account for crack surface contact in regions wherein the linear solutions predict physically inadmissible crack surface inter penetration. An efficient finite element algorithm is developed accordingly to solve the static problem of the beam containing a fully embedded sharp crack in a linear, elastic, homogeneous and isotropic system. Emphasis is placed on the comparison between the near-tip fracture characteristics estimates, e.g. the normalized energy release rate, Mode I and Mode II stress intensity factors (SIF), and mode mixity, with closure effects and those without closure effects reported elsewhere. The crack length, orientation, and crack center location appear as the studied model parameters of a beam of fixed beam aspect ratio. In addition, based on the study observations of pure Mode II crack, a case study on the beam with an embedded vertical crack in the compressive regime is reported to show the deformed profiles due to full crack surfaces closure during loading. The curvature profile of the cracked beam with and without closure effects are compared to those of the healthy beam for the application of closure effects in improving the results accuracy.