Constraint-Based Fracture Mechanics Analysis of Cylinders With Circumferential Cracks

In this paper, the fracture behaviour of hollow cylinders with internal circumferential crack under tensile loading is examined extensively. Finite element analysis of the cracked cylinders is conducted to determine the fracture parameters including stress intensity factor, T-stress, and J-integral. Linear elastic finite element analysis is conducted to obtain K and T-stress, and elastic plastic analysis is conducted to obtain fully plastic J-integrals. A wide range of cylinder geometries are studied, with cylinder thickness ratios of r_i/r_o = 0.2 to 0.8 and crack depth ratio a/t = 0.2 to 0.8. These fracture parameters are then used to construct conventional and constraint-based failure assessment diagrams (FADs) to determine the maximum load carrying capacity of cracked cylinders. It is demonstrated that these tensile loaded cylinders with circumferential cracks are under low constraint conditions, and the load carrying capacity are higher when the low constraint effects are properly accounted for, using constraint-based FADs, comparing to the predictions from the conventional FADs.