LIMIT LOAD ANALYSIS OF COMPONENTS WITH MULTIPLE CRACKS

Elastic modulus adjustment procedures (EMAP) have been employed to determine limit loads fracture mechanic components including cracks. On the basis of linear elastic Finite Element Analysis (FEA) with non-hardening elastic properties, i.e., by specifying spatial variations in the elastic modulus, numerous set of statically admissible and kinematically admissible distributions can be generated, and both lower and upper bounds on limit loads can be obtained. This paper demonstrates the application of EMAP in the context of limit load determination of cracked components. The procedure is initially applied to some practical components with cracks to verify their effectiveness in analyzing crack geometries. The analysis is then directed to pipe geometries containing multiple cracks representing typical stress corrosion colonies. The limit load results are then compared to traditional nonlinear finite element analysis results or analytical solutions.