NUMERICAL EVALUATION OF SIF FOR RADIAL CRACKS IN THICK ANNULAR RING USING CYCLIC SYMMETRY

Mode I Stress Intensity Factor for periodic radial cracks emanating fr om inner and outer boundaries of an annular ring is evaluated using fi nite element technique and the concept of cyclic symmetry. Potter's me thod of solution algorithm is used to reduce the in-core memory requir ements. The software and the solution methodology are validated by com paring the results of SIF for a large number of radial cracks emanatin g from the inner boundary of an internally pressurised cylinder with t hose available in the literature. Using the software developed, SIF is evaluated for a large number radial cracks for two l/a ratios emanati ng from the outer boundary of a pressurised cylinder. SIF is also eval uated for a large number of cracks emanating from inner and outer boun daries of a rotating disk. Further, SIF is evaluated as a function of l/(b-a) ratio for various b/a ratios for four and eight cracks emanati ng from inner and outer boundaries of a rotating disk. Copyright (C) 1 996 Elsevier Science Ltd.