Evaluation of Strees Intensity Factor for an Infinite Hollow Cylinder Containing a Crack and Two Rigid Inclusions by Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

A numerical implementation based on the finite element method for the infinite cracked hollow cylinder under the action of axisymmetric tensile loads at infinity is considered in this study. The infinite cylinder contains a ring-shaped crack of width (b . a) at the symmetry plane z . 0, and two rigid inclusions of width (d . c) located symmetrically on both sides of the crack. Material of the cylinder is assumed to be linearly elastic and isotropic.The proposed model uses efficiently the capabilities of a commercially available finite element analysis program, ANSYS, to determine the stress intensity factors at the crack tips. In the finite element analysis, six-noded triangular elements were used to model the square-root stress singularity at the crack tips. In order to get the stress intensity factors, the displacement extrapolation method was used.The numerical results for various crack and inclusion configurations are obtained and compared with the analytical results in order to verify Artem.s study. When the inclusions are far away from the crack, the interaction among them vanishes. In this case, the numerical and analytical results are in good agreement. On the other hand, when the inclusions get closer to the crack, a discrepancy has been occurred within the acceptable limits.