Fracture of cylindrical shells containing a circumferential crack

ABSTRACT A finite element analysis is developed to determine all possible fracture modes at the tip of a circumferential through-crack in cylindrical shells. Two different types of loading are used which assume either the application of external torque or axial tension. Some numerical results are also presented for the shells subjected to combined tension and torsion. Fracture properties of the shells are examined as a function of crack length. It is shown that for very short cracks in thin-walled cylindrical shells the stress intensity factors for the individual cases of tension or torsion can be determined from the shallow-shell theory. For long cracks however, disagreement between the finite element data and the shallow-shell theory results is very pronounced. It is observed that combined loading produces extremely complicated displacements at the crack tip which are particularly visible for long cracks.