Characteristics of the stress intensity factor of a circumferential crack in a cylinder under radial temperature distribution

Characteristics of the stress intensity factor of a circumferential crack in a cylinder under radial temperature distribution, which can be regarded as linear, were investigated systematically. The simplified method previously developed by the authors enabled our systematical approach. The investigation was conducted to comprehend the previously reported fact on the stress intensity factor. That is, the stress intensity factor under a given linear temperature distribution tends to decrease monotonously as the crack becomes longer than a specific value. It was shown that this tendency was a fundamental characteristic of the stress intensity factor for the problem and it was concluded that the cause of this was the moment redistribution due to the increase in crack length. In addition, it was pointed out that the stress intensity factor of the crack for a specific cylinder length was larger than that for an infinite length.