The viability of a simple procedure for determining the criterion for the instability of circumferential growth of a through-wall crack in a stainless steel piping system,Part 1: The applied displacements produce only bending deformation

This paper investigates the stability of a circumferential through-wall crack in a straight segment of stainless steel pipe which is built-in at both ends. One built-in end is fixed, while the other is subject to both a rotation and a transverse displacement. In analysing this situation, it is assumed that the material is non-work-hardening, with plasticity being confined to the cracked cross-section which is fully yielded; the remainder of the pipe deforms elastically. The plasticity is in the form of a rotation about a neutral axis, but allowance is made for the axial displacement produced by this rotation, and in this respect the analysis is an improvement upon some earlier analyses. The instability criterion, obtained with the aid of the tearing modulus methodology, is shown to be independent of the details of the imposed boundary conditions, but it is different to the criterion obtained by ignoring the axial displacement. The paper discusses the implications of the results to the problem of crack instability in stainless steel nuclear reactor piping systems, particularly with regards to the viability of a simple procedure that is currently used to assess the integrity of piping systems.     

The stability of growth of a through-wall circumferential crack in a pipe subject to combined bending and tensile loadings

The stability of growth of a through-wall circumferential crack in a pipe is analysed for the case where the material has a high crack growth resistance, the analysis being based on the tearing modulus procedure. Rotations and lateral displacements are applied at the ends of the pipe, and this allows the combined effects of bending and tensile loadings on the stability of crack growth to be assessed. The general conclusion is that tensile loadings can have an adverse effect on crack stability, in accord with the conclusion reached in the author's earlier studies of plane strain crack growth in a beam. The stability results are compared with those obtained by Tada, Paris and Gamble, who allowed the tensile loadings to affect the position of the neutral axis, but did not consider instability in terms of the deformations produced by these loadings.     

The effect of non-uniform bending deformation on the stability of circumferential growth of through-wall cracks in brass tubes

Experimental results on the stability of circumferential growth of through-wall cracks in brass tubes, show that non-uniform bending can adversely affect the crack stability criterion. The results are relevant to the important technological problem of crack stability in 304 stainless steel pipes used in Boiling Water Reactors.     

The stability of a circumferential crack in a pipe II. A simple procedure for determining the effective pipe length

A simple procedure is currently used to determine the effective pipe length associated with the instability of circumferential crack growth in a piping system. This procedure involves a separation of the complete piping system into two elastic parts at the cracked cross-section, the application of equal and opposite moments M to the cut faces, and the equation of the effective pipe length with $\text{El∥φ∥}\text{M}$ where φ is the rotational discontinuity generated at this section, E is Young's modulus and I is the second moment of area of the pipe at the cracked section. It is presumed that the pipe-ends remain fixed, i.e. they are built-in, throughout this operation. This paper shows that this procedure refers to the stability of a crack in a piping system which is subject to either a fixed displacement or a fixed rotation at a built-in end. The viability of the simple procedure is therefore underscored by the present paper's analysis.     

The stability of crack growth in a beam subject to combined bending and tensile loadings. II: Beam subject to rotations and lateral displacements at the ends

The stability of crack growth in a beam subject to combined bending and tensile loadings is examined for the case where the material is very ductile and where the beam is built-in at one end. Application of a displacement at the free end, and variation of the angle which the displacement makes with the beam, allows the combined effects of bending and tensile loadings on the stability of crack growth to be assessed. The stability analysis is based on the tearing modulus procedure, and the general conclusion is that tensile loadings can promote crack instability.     

The criterion for determining the direction of crack propagation in a random pattern composites

Presented paper contains results of fracture analysis of brittle composite materials with a random distribution of grains. The composite structure has been modelled as an isotropic matrix that surrounds circular grains with random diameters and space position. Analyses were preformed for the rectangular “numerical sample” by finite element method. FE mesh for the examples were generated using the authors’ computer program RandomGrain. Fracture analyses were accomplished with the authors’ computer program CrackPath3 executing the “fine mesh window” technique. Calculations were preformed in 2D space assuming the plane stress state. Current efforts focus on brittle materials such as rocks or concrete.     

A Peierls criterion for the onset of deformation twinning at a crack tip

A criterion for the onset of deformation twinning (DT) is derived within the Peierls framework for dislocation emission from a crack tip due to Rice (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 40(2) (1992) 239). The critical stress intensity factor (SIF) is obtained for nucleation of a two-layer microtwin, which is taken to be a precursor to DT. The nucleation of the microtwin is controlled by the unstable twinning energyγ_ut, a new material parameter identified in the analysis. γ_ut plays the same role for DT as γ_us, the unstable stacking energy introduced by Rice, plays for dislocation emission. The competition between dislocation emission and DT at the crack tip is quantified by the twinning tendencyT defined as the ratio of the critical SIFs for dislocation nucleation and microtwin formation. DT is predicted when T>1 and dislocation emission when T<1. For the case where the external loading is proportional to a single load parameter, T is proportional to . The predictions of the criterion are compared with atomistic simulations for aluminum of Hai and Tadmor (Acta Mater. 51 (2003) 117) for a number of different crack configurations and loading modes. The criterion is found to be qualitatively exact for all cases, predicting the correct deformation mode and activated slip system. Quantitatively, the accuracy of the predicted nucleation loads varies from 5% to 56%. The sources of error are known and may be reduced by appropriate extensions to the model.     

The stability of crack growth in a beam subject to combined bending and tensile loadings: I: Beam built-in at one end

The stability of crack growth in a beam subject to combined bending and tensile loadings is examined for the case where the material is very ductile and where the beam is built-in at one end. Application of a displacement at the free end, and variation of the angle which the displacement makes with the beam, allows the combined effects of bending and tensile loadings on the stability of crack growth to be assessed. The stability analysis is based on the tearing modulus procedure, and the general conclusion is that tensile loadings can promote crack instability.