EQUIVALENCE FOR 2 INTERACTING PARALLEL CRACKS

Crack failure prediction is a prerequisite to assess the safety margin for pressure vessels with interacting parallel cracks. Therefore, an alternating iteration method with approximated image traction is emplo yed in this study to assess the stress intensity factors of tu a stack ed parallel cracks. The predicted crack intensity factors for these pa rallel cracks correlate well with the recent available solutions in li terature. Maximum-energy-release-rate criterion is also utilized for c onverting problems of multiple cracks into a single crack in mode I. R esults demonstrate that a shouter secondary parallel crack may enhance the equivalent crack primarily in the regions 0 < h/2a(l) less than o r equal to 0.8 and -1 less than or equal to t/a(l) less than or equal to 1. The predicted results can be used to evaluate the conformability of simple proximity rules suggested by ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code (ASME B&PV Code).