• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2013

Three Surface cracks are among the more common flaws in aircraft and pressure vessel components. Accurate stress intensity analyses and crack growth rate data of surface-cracked components are needed for reliable prediction of their fatigue life and fracture strengths. Three Dimensional finite element method (FEM) was used to obtain the stress intensity factor for surface cracks existing in structures. A geometry model, i.e. a solid containing one or several 3D cracks is defined. Nodes are generated by bucket method, and quadratic tetrahedral solid elements are generated by the Delaunay triangulation techniques. To examine accuracy and efficiency of the present system, the stress intensity factor for a semi-elliptical surface crack in cylindrical structures subjected to pressure is calculated. Analysis results by present system showed good agreement with those by ASME equation and Raju-Newman's equation.