Simulation of crack development for Leak-Before-Break applications

The term Leak-Before-Break (LBB) refers to a well-established safety criterion used to assess whether cracked tanks or pipes can leak detectable amounts of fluid as a warning before catastrophic failure occurs. In this research The LBB criterion was applied to the safety assessment of spherical Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) containment systems on...

Prediction of fatigue crack growth

As an introduction the practical significance of fatigue crack growth life prediction is related to the service life, the inspection period and the fracture control requirements. Then different aspects of fatigue crack growth in metallic materials are discussed in more detail. Important effects such as chemical environment, short cracks, crack...

Finite element analyses of stable crack growh in thin sheet material

This study deals with fracture mechanics aspects of mode 1 crack growth under montonically increasing (quasi-static) loads. Using the finite element method stable crack growth and the plastic deformation fields associated with this process are analyzed. A two parameter approach is proposed for a description of initiation and subsequent stable...

Engineering application of fracture mechanics to flight simulation fatigue crack propagation

Application of fracture mechanics in designing built-up sheet structures

Past experience has shown that during the operational life of an aircraft structure cracks or failures may arise in different structural components. In future designs the designer must be able on the one hand to restrict the occurrence of cracks by a careful detail design and on the other hand to guarantee some specified life of the aircraft if...

Heat treatment studies of aluminium alloy type 7050 forgings. Interim report no. 2: The effect of heat treatment on a variety of engineering properties

The effect of variety of heat treatments on various engineering properties was studied with the aim to derive an optimum heat treatment. The engineering properties comprised Vickers hardness, short-time tensile strength, fatigue crack propagation resistance, fracture toughness and stress corrosion resistance. The test results were compared with...