On fracture analysis of cracked curved beams

Abstract

This paper focuses on evaluating stress intensity factors (SIFs), for a curved beam of circular cross section with an external ring crack, applying an approach on the basis of estimating the strain energy release rate. The out of plane vibration of the beam is investigated. This approach requires an additional factor namely correction factor, on the basis of the energy release zone slope to approximate the SIFs. The initial curvature of the beam, however, adds some complication in using this factor. The second part of this study is investigating a numerical approach namely differential quadrature element method (DQEM) to gain the natural frequencies of the cracked beam. This method is applied to show the application of the SIFs to calculate the compliance of the cracked section for modeling the crack. The other method which is used to obtain the natural frequencies is the finite element method (FEM). The results of these two methods are found to be in good agreement, which shows the precision of the stress intensity factors of the cracked beam.