Fracture of cylindrical shells with cracks in tension

In practice, cracks may frequently be introduced in structural components during the course of the technological manufacturing and service. Studies concerning the strength prediction of structures with cracks are therefore of considerable importance. During the fracture process of thin-walled structure elements, material local to the crack may buckle. The fracture characteristics may be affected considerably. Both theoretical and experimental studies of this problem were made for plates [1]. In this work, experimental results are presented for the deformation and fracture of cylindrical shells with cracks.