ON K-I ESTIMATES OF CRACKED PIPES USING AN ELLIPTIC HOLE MODEL AND ELEMENTARY BEAM STRENGTH THEORY OF CRACKED BEAMS

Based on energy release rates of elementary beams, an approximate expr ession was proposed by Herrmann et at. [1-4, 6, 7] for calculating the stress intensity factors (SIFs). In their method, the cracks in beam were simulated by a rectangular defect. In present paper, an elliptica l hole is proposed to describe the discontinuities in Stiffness of cra cked pipes for estimating SIFs, and the results produced by this propo sal are remarkably in agreement with the exact solutions obtained from complete shell analysis. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.