Stress intensity factor calculation for semi-elliptical cracks on functionally graded material coated cylinders

In this paper, the effect of functionally graded material (FGM) coatings on the fracture behavior of semi-elliptical cracks in cylinders is assessed. The objective is to calculate the stress intensity factor (SIF) of a longitudinal semi-elliptical crack on the wall of an aluminum cylinder with FGM coating. A three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) is used for constructing the mechanical models and analyzing the SIFs of cracks. The effect of many geometrical parameters such as relative depth, crack aspect ratio, FG coating thickness to liner thickness as well as the mechanical properties of the FG coating on the SIF of the cracks is discussed. For a special case, the validity of the FE model is examined. The results indicated that there is a particular crack aspect ratio in which the maximum value of SIFs changes from the deepest point to the surface point of the crack. Moreover, it was found that the SIFs decrease by increasing the thickness ratio of the cylinder. But, the cylinder length has no effect on the crack SIFs.