Stress intensity factors for semi-elliptical surface cracks in plates and cylindrical pressure vessels using the hybrid boundary element method

Abstract

At first, a hybrid boundary element method used for three-dimensional linear elastic fracture analysis is established on the basis of the first and the second kind of boundary integral equations. Then the concerned basic theories and numerical approaches including the discretization of boundary integral equations, the divisions of different boundary elements, and the procedures for the calculations of singular and hypersingular integrals are presented in detail. Finally, the stress intensity factors of surface cracks in finite thickness plates and cylindrical pressure vessels are computed by the proposed method. The numerical results show that the hybrid boundary element method has very high accuracy for the analysis of surface crack.