Elastic stress and deformation analyses on an all-steel cylinder without defects and with axial cracks

Abstract

Using the three-dimensional elastic finite element method, stress analyses and the deformation analyses on an all-steel cylinder without defects and with axial cracks were carried out. The severe effect of the defects on an all-steel cylinder was shown through comparisons of the stress analyses and the deformation analyses on the cylinder without defects and with an axial crack. The analyses show that there appear both the inhomogeneous deformation and the stress singularities around the defects. The influences of defect size, internal pressure and defect types (internal crack or external crack), on the stress distributions and on the deformation distributions were discussed. The crack mouth opening displacement and the stress intensity factor K I for the cylinders containing the axial deep cracks, which was detected in a practical applied cylinder, were presented and discussed. The effects of the location of the cracks (whether external or internal) and the shape of the through-thickness crack front (whether elliptical or straight front) on the crack driving forces are quantified. All the results of the stress analysis, the deformation analyses and the fracture analyses are supported by each other very well.