Three-Dimensional Interaction Effects in an Internally Multicracked Pressurized Thick-Walled Cylinder—Part II: Longitudinal Coplanar Crack Arrays

Abstract

In the first part of this paper, the interaction effects among many radial, internal, semi-circular, and semi-elliptical cracks in a pressurized, thick-walled vessel were quantified. In the present paper, the mode I stress intensity factor (SIF) distribution for numerous longitudinal coplanar, internal, semi-circular, and semi-elliptical arrays of surface cracks in an infinite, pressurized, thick-walled cylinder are evaluated. The 3-D analysis is performed by the finite element (FE) method and the submodeling technique, employing singular elements along the crack front. The effects of dense and sparse interacting longitudinal coplanar crack arrays on the SIFs are studied for a wide range of crack depth to wall thickness ratios, a/t, from 0.05 to 0.6; and, for various ellipticities of the crack, i.e., the ratio of the crack depth to semi-crack length, a/c, from 0.2 to 2.0. An analysis is performed to determine the influence of the three major parameters—crack density, crack ellipticity, and crack depth—on the interaction effects between adjacent cracks. The results clearly indicate that crack density, and, in some cases, ellipticity have opposing effects on the SIF of longitudinal crack arrays as compared to radial crack arrays. As a result of these contrasting behaviors, thick-walled cylinders having combined longitudinal and radial crack arrays would need further study.