Numerical Fracture Mechanics Evaluation on Surface Cracks in a Spherical Oxygen Holder

Abstract

During the last decade, possibility of flaw occurrences has been rapidly increased world-widely as the increase of operating times of petro-chemical facilities. For instance, from a recent in-service inspection, three different sized surface cracks were detected in welding parts of a spherical oxygen holder in Korea. While API579 code provides corresponding engineering assessment procedures to determine crack driving forces, in the present work, numerical analyses are carried out for the cracked oxygen holder to investigate effects of complex geometry, analysis model and residual stress. With regard to the detailed finite element analysis, stress intensity factors are determined from both the full three-dimensional model and equivalent plate model. Also, as an alternative, stress intensity factors are calculated for equivalent plate model by employing the noted influence stress function technique. Finally, parametric structural integrity evaluation of the cracked oxygen holder is conducted in use of failure assessment diagram method, J/T method and DPFAD method. Effects of the geometry and so forth are examined and key findings from the simulations are fully discussed, which enables to determine practical safety margins of spherical components containing a defect.