Elastic-Plastic J-Analysis for an Inner Surface Flaw in a Pressure Vessel

Elastic-plastic finite-element (FE) analyses of a pressurized cylinder with a deep inner surface flaw were done to study the effect of different loading conditions, i.e., axial forces and crack-face loading. The local energy-release rate was calculated by the method of virtual crack extension including a correction term if pressure acts on the crack faces. The numerical results are compared with a small-scale yielding generalization of the Newman-Raju approximation.