Interaction Effects in Combined Arrays of Radial and Longitudinal Semi-Elliptical Surface Cracks in Pressurized Thick-Walled Cylinder

In two previous papers, the interaction effects for two separate cases of large arrays of semi-elliptical, internal, surface cracks in a thick-walled, cylindrical pressure vessel were studied. First, arrays of radial cracks were considered followed by the study of longitudinal-coplanar crack arrays. Circumferential crack density and longitudinal crack spacing were found to have opposing effects on the prevailing stress intensity factors (SIFs). Consequently, in the present paper, combined arrays of both radial and longitudinal cracks are considered, and their interaction effects are studied. The mode I stress intensity factor (SIF) distribution for numerous configurations of combined semi-circular and semi-elliptical crack arrays are evaluated. The 3-D analysis is performed by the finite element (FE) method and the submodeling technique, employing singular elements along the crack front. The effects of crack density in the circumferential direction and of relative spacing in the longitudinal direction on the SIFs are studied for combined arrays of up to 32 circumferentially equispaced, radial cracks and having longitudinal relative spacing of 2c/d of 0.25 to 0.99; for a wide range of crack depth to wall thickness ratios, a/t, from 0.05 to 0.4; and for various ellipticities of the crack, i.e., the ratio of crack depth to semicrack length, a/c, from 0.2 to 1.5. The results clearly indicate that the SIFs are considerably affected by the interaction among the cracks, and that the SIF values depend upon the circumferential density and longitudinal spacing, the crack depth and ellipticity, as well as the three-dimensional nature of the problem.