FRACTURE-MECHANICS BASED DESIGN PROCEDURES FOR PRESSURIZED COMPONENTSHAVING PART-THROUGH CRACKS

This paper presents a fracture mechanics based design procedure for pr essurized components having part-through cracks, Fracture critical str esses are evaluated for the assumed crack configurations and the fract ure envelopes are obtained for these configurations, For small size cr ack configurations, Feddersen's type correction is made for proper est imation of critical stress values. Residual strength of unbroken ligam ent is a more appropriate criterion for the design of thin sections wi th part-through cracks, A criterion based on the ligament failure is d efined for cases where the critical fracture stresses are above the ma terial yield stress value, The procedure is illustrated by presenting an example of a pressurized tankage used in aerospace industry.