Crack growth pattern prediction in a thin walled cylinder based on closed form thermo-elastic stress intensity factors

Circumferential crack growth pattern in a thin-walled cylinder is studied. Thermo-elastic stresses in a cylinder subjected to thermomechanical loads are extracted. Closed form thermo-elastic stress intensity factor for cracked cylinder are derived using weight function method. An algorithm is developed to simulate different crack growth patterns utilizing a very high efficiency weight function method. This would lessen the taken time for the analyses compared to other numerical methods such as FEM. Results show that while the load effect on cylinder subjected to thermal load lead to the crack growth in small aspect ratio, in cylinder subjected to mechanical loads, it would lead to the growth of crack in large aspect ratio. The results show that, apart from load effects, the cylinders containing initial semi-circular crack have the longest life among the cylinders containing initial semi-elliptical crack with the same initial depth.