A study of the stress intensity factors for single or multiple cracks in thick-walled cylinders

Abstract

The variation of stress intensity factors of a single semi-elliptical crack and multiple semi-elliptical cracks which are radial symmetric or unsymmetric array in an internal pressurized thick-walled cylinder is studied by use of the “frozen-stress” photo-elastic method. The method of determining mixed-mode stress intensity factors K I and K II is given. By means of experimental results and the relative results of other authors, the approximate expression for evaluating stress intensity factors of straight border, semi-circular, semi-elliptical internal surface cracks in thick-walled cylinders are presented.