Vibration buckling and fracture analysis of a cracked cylindrical shell

Abstract

Shell structures are susceptible to various types of imperfections and damage such as cracking, corrosion, chemical attack and time-dependent material degradation, which may impair their structural integrity and affect their service life. The effects of cracks are important considerations in the design of cylindrical shell structures as they influence on load carrying capacity and safety. This present work is a finite element investigation on the vibration, buckling and fracture analysis of a cracked cylindrical shell subjected to a time varying rotating speed. The effects of crack length, orientation of crack and length-diameter ratio of the cylindrical shell are investigated under free-vibration and buckling. The fracture parameters like stress intensity factor and J-integral of the cracked shell are also studied considering the influence of crack length and crack orientation. Results reveal that the crack length and crack orientation can affect the vibration, buckling behaviour of the cylindrical shell significantly.