Fatigue life analysis of a cannon barrel

A steel cannon barrel was tested and analyzed in order to predict its lifetime. Mechanical properties, fracture toughness and fatigue behavior were determined experimentally. The cannon barrel was assumed to have a smooth inner surface. On that basis, finite element analyses were carried out in order to determine the stress intensity factor as a function of crack length for the case in which the cannon barrel contains two symmetrically located cracks. The fatigue data was assumed to follow the Paris–Erdogan law. A statistical Monte Carlo analysis for the fatigue life of the cannon barrel was carried out with many of the parameters assumed to be random variables.