Damage Tolerant Fracture Assessment of Crack for Non-Standard Geometries under Static and Fatigue Loading 2024-26-0276

Cracks on metallic components may appear due to manufacturing, handling, installation, repair, welding etc. and are controlled by quality documents. However, if cracks violate the limit defined in quality document, then either parts will be scraped or will need additional evaluation through detailed fracture mechanic’s approach. The initial size and shape of a crack, part geometry and loading, highly impacts the behavior of a crack’s growth and remaining useful life. Industry standard software like ANSYS, AFGROW, Franc3D, etc. offer the solution to estimate the stress intensity factor and crack growth rate. However, these software’s have their limitation and start showing the deviation for complex geometry and loading scenario.

Study has been performed using Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) to understand the effect of crack size, crack shape, multiple cracks at one location, complex geometry and stress gradient on a crack’s growth behavior and provides the solution to handle these complexities using simplified approach to overcome software limitations.