Stress Intensity Factors for Unequal Longitudinal-Radial Cracks in Thick-Walled Cylinders

Abstract

Finite elements and two-dimensional photoelasticity have been used to analyze thick-walled cylinders which contain arrays of straight-fronted, longitudinal-radial cracks of unequal depth. The stress intensity factor K1 has been computed for the dominant crack and for some of the surrounding cracks. Cylinders with 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 36 and 40 cracks have been considered. Good agreement has been obtained between the experimental and the numerical results and, for cylinders with 2 or 4 cracks, with previously published predictions. The results for all of the foregoing cases are used to develop simple, approximate techniques for estimating K1 for the dominant crack, when the total number of cracks is different from those that have been considered herein. Estimates of K1 obtained by these techniques agree well with corresponding finite element results.