Stress intensity factors in a circular cylinder containing a pair of radial cracks

Abstract The elasticity problem of a circular cylinder having a pair of radial cracks subject to mode I loading is studied in this article. Stress intensity factors of the cracked cylinder under mode I loading are systematically and effectively evaluated with use of an equivalent procedure established in this paper. The equivalent procedure reduces the problem under consideration to that of a simpler geometry—an infinite medium with two similar collinear cracks. Numerical results are obtained for a uniform tension and for a pair of concentrated forces acting on the circumferential boundary of the cylinder. The relative merit of the solution method presented in this paper is also discussed.