Stress-Intensity Factors for Arbitrarily Oriented Cracks in Shallow Shells

Abstract

The equations describing the stress and strain fields in an elastically isotropic shallow shell containing a crack are reduced, via Fourier transforms, to four coupled singular integral equations plus side conditions. A perturbation solution, useful for relatively short cracks, is constructed for a pressurized shell of revolution containing a stress-free crack that makes an arbitrary angle with a line of curvature of the midsurface. First-order corrections due to curvature and crack orientation of the mode I (opening) and mode II (shearing) stress-intensity factors for a plate are computed analytically.