Numerical analysis of fatigue growth of external surface cracks in pressurised cylinders

Fatigue crack growth is modelled by a novel numerical technique for various external surface cracks with initially either semi-elliptical or irregular crack fronts. The technique employs a three-dimensional finite element analysis to estimate the stress intensity factors at a set of points of the crack front, then calculates local crack advances by integrating a type of Paris fatigue crack growth law at this set of points, and finally establishes a new crack front and its corresponding finite element model. The multiple degrees-of-freedom model enables the crack shape to be predicted directly during crack growth without having to make the common semi-elliptical assumption, and therefore provides more accurate predictions. Fatigue analysis results are presented and discussed, including fatigue shape developments and deviations from the semi-elliptical shape, together with aspect ratio changes, stress intensity factor variations during crack growth and fatigue life predictions. Some of these results are also compared with those obtained by two simplified predictive methods based on one and two degrees-of-freedom models together with a stress linearisation.