DETERMINATION OF SIF (STRESS INTENSITY

FACTOR) OF SEMI-ELLIPTIC CRACK IN A THICK

CYLINDER USING FEA (FINITE ELEMENT
ANALYSIS) TECHNIQUE

Presented By

Morrish Kumar
ME 4th Semester
(Roll No.:5146409006)

Under Guidance of

Prof. Sanjeev Shrivastava
(Associate Professor)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Shri Shankaracharya Group of Institutions
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Junwani, Bhilai (C.G.)

Methodology:
To determine SIF of semi-elliptic crack in a thick cylinder using
ANSYS as a FEA tool following parameters have been
mentioned first in ANSYS GUI.
a = Crack depth.
R
i
/t = Ratio of cylinder inner radius and thickness.
a/c = Ratio of crack depth and half of crack width.
a/t = Ratio of crack depth and cylinder thickness.
t = a/(a/t).
c = a/(a/c).
R
i
= t* (R/t).








The values which have been considered for above mentioned
parameters are like:
a = 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 (in mm)
R
i
/t = 4.5 and 5.
a/c = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0
a/t = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, and 0.8
(Rest of the parameters would be generated through
equations)

Contd.
For analysis different cases of semi-elliptic cracks first a set of
parameter values have been considered and modeling, meshing
and loading has been done in ANSYS. Then changing the
parameters only different cases can be generated easily.
For the first case the parameters have been considered as follows:
a = 2 mm
R
i
/t = 4.5
a/c = 0.2
a/t = 0.2

(Rest of the parameters which have been generated by
equations have been shown in figure below)

Contd.
Contd.
After assigning the parameters modeling has been done in
ANSYS parametrically. Here a quarter 3-Dimensional model of
cylinder has been generated including crack.
Half of the semi-elliptic crack has been generated. To generate
the crack first crack front has been drawn as per the given or
considered parameters and then a semi circle of radius 0.1*a has
been swept along the crack front.
Following figure depicts the 3-Dimensional model of cracked
cylinder.
Contd.
Contd.
Contd.
After generating volume mesh has been generated as following
way

Contd.
Contd.
Now boundary conditions have been imposed

Contd.
Results:
Now after solution SIF can be determined and following table
shows SIF calculated for few cases and compared with Zahoora
et al (Reference [2])

a
(mm)
R/t a/c a/t
KI*,
ZAHOOR[2]
KI*, ANSYS Error (%)
2 5.0 0.2 0.2 6.80 6.41 5.68
4 5.0 0.2 0.4 7.82 7.25 7.30
6 5.0 0.2 0.6 9.17 8.82 3.84
1 10.0 0.2 0.2 12.64 11.91 5.09
2 10.0 0.2 0.4 14.46 13.88 4.04
3 10.0 0.2 0.6 16.81 16.73 0.46
1 20 0.2 0.2 23.77 22.89 3.69
2 20 0.2 0.6 31.16 32.37 -1.10
Case Studied:
In this case study a semi-elliptical crack situated on the inner
surface of a cylinder has been considered having a crack front
extended from =0 to =90. This fact has been depicted in the
figure below.
Inner pressure of magnitude 10Mpa is applied to the structure.
Results are obtained for different R/t, a/t and a/c values. R is
50mm for all cases but a, c and t change. Results are obtained for
the following values;
R/t = 5, 10 and 20
a/t = 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6
a/c = 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8

Now different graphs have been plotted between values of KI*
and values of different input parameters like, different values of
crack front angle , Different values of R/t ratio, a/t ratio and a/c
ratio. All these data have been presented below and graphs
generated from the data have been show then.

Contd.
Contd.
R/t a/t a/c
a
(in
mm)

0 11.25 22.5 33.75 45 56.25 67.5 78.75 90
5
0.2
0.2 2 6.41 6.3 6.25 5.99 5.59 5.07 4.41 3.67 3.44
0.4 2 5.58 5.5 5.49 5.3 5.03 4.7 4.35 4.1 4.11
0.8 2 4.34 4.3 4.35 4.31 4.27 4.24 4.25 4.36 4.31
0.4
0.2 4 7.25 7.16 7.11 6.79 6.32 5.73 5.02 4.24 3.96
0.4 4 5.84 5.76 5.76 5.58 5.34 5.03 4.71 4.5 4.45
0.8 4 4.33 4.28 4.35 4.33 4.31 4.31 4.35 4.51 4.42
0.6
0.2 6 8.82 8.78 8.59 8.26 7.53 6.77 5.95 5.12 4.95
0.4 6 6.37 6.28 6.29 6.15 5.93 5.63 5.34 5.2 5.23
0.8 6 4.39 4.34 4.42 4.43 4.44 4.48 4.58 4.81 4.77
Contd.
R/t a/t a/c
a
(in
mm)

0 11.25 22.5 33.75 45 56.25 67.5 78.75 90
10
0.2
0.2 1 11.92 11.8 11.7 11.16 10.4 9.4 8.15 6.76 6.21
0.4 1 10.4 10.27 10.18 9.85 9.33 8.69 8.01 7.53 7.64
0.8 1 8.07 8 8.05 7.97 7.87 7.81 7.83 8.01 8.1
0.4
0.2 2 13.89 13.61 13.46 12.8 11.9 10.75 9.36 7.79 7.38
0.4 2 11.12 10.96 10.96 10.59 10.09 9.46 8.8 8.36 8.45
0.8 2 8.2 8.14 8.23 8.18 8.11 8.09 8.15 8.4 8.37
0.6
0.2 3 16.73 16.5 16.29 15.57 14.48 13.12 11.48 9.74 9.27
0.4 3 12.14 12 12.01 11.71 11.25 10.69 10.09 9.74 9.85
0.8 3 8.37 8.3 8.45 8.45 8.45 8.52 8.68 9.07 9.05
Conclusion and future scope:
The investigation carried out in this project leads to a very
important conclusion. For complicated configuration of cracks,
FEA method is very useful to calculate SIF of a crack and this
fact has been demonstrated over here by calculating SIF of a
semi-elliptic crack in a thick cylinder using a renowned FEA tool
ANSYS and analysis has been done in ANSYS parametrically.
But for some cases, mostly the cases with sharp elliptical path
(e.g. a/c=0.2), meshing cannot be done with a straightforward
way. Special effort is needed. Element sizes are aligned according
to the geometry.
This thesis study can be extended by the following subjects
In this thesis study, homogeneous isotropic material is
considered. In the future, FGM (Functionally Graded Material)
can also be considered.
Elasto-plastic fracture mechanics can be considered with these
crack types.
This work can be extended with different dimensions of
structure and crack.
Conical shapes can also be considered.
Contd.
References:
1) Gery Wilkowsky, Leak-Before-Break: What Does It Really Mean? Journal of
Pressure Vessel Technology, August 2000, Volume 122, Issue 3, pp. 267-272

2) A. Zahoor, Closed Form expressions for Fracture Mechanics Analysis of Cracked
pipes. Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology 1985, vol.107, pp.203- 205.

3) Raju IS, Newman Jr C. Stress intensity factors for internal and external surface
crack in cylindrical vessels. Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology 1982, vol.104,
2938.

4) A.R.Shahani, S.M.Nabavi, Closed form stress intensity factors for a semi-elliptical
crack in a thick-walled cylinder under thermal stress. International Journal of
Fatigue 28, 2006, pp.926-933

5) A.R.Shahani, S.M.Nabavi, Transient Thermal stress intensity factors for an internal
longitudinal semi-elliptical crack in a thick-walled cylinder. Engineering Fracture
Mechanics 74, 2007, pp.2585-2602

6) A.R.Shahani, S.M.Nabavi, Calculation of stress intensity factors for a longitudinal
semi-elliptical crack in a finite-length thick-walled cylinder. Fatigue and Fracture of
Engineering Materials and Structures 31, 2008, pp.85-94

7) G.Atalay, A Computational Elastic Fracture Analysis of Cylindrical and Conical
Structures, September 2002

8. A.R.Shahani, S.E. Habibi, Stress intensity factors in a hollow cylinder containing a
circumferential semi-elliptical crack subjected to combined loading. International
journal of Fatigue, 29, 2007, pp. 128-140

9. Naoki Miura, Yukio Takahashi, Hiroshi Shibamoto, Kazuhiko Inoue, Comparison of
stress intensity factor solutions for cylinders with axial and circumferential cracks,
Nuclear Engineering and Design 238, 2008, pp.4.23-434

10. Yun-Jae Kim, Jin-Su Kim, Young-Jae Park, Young-Jin Kim, Elasticplastic
fracture mechanics method for finite internal axial surface cracks in cylinders,
Engineering Fracture Mechanics 71 (2004) 925944.

11. O.tnan, Three Dimensional Fracture Analysis of FGM Coatings, September 2004

12. B.Sabuncuoglu, Fatigue Crack Growth Analysis Models for Functionally Graded
Materials, January 2006

13. S.Kker, Three Dimensional Mixed Mode Fracture Analysis of Functionally Graded
Materials, September 2007

14. Release 11.0 Documentation for ANSYS

15. Fracture Mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications, Anderson, T.L., 2005

Contd.
THANK YOU