Stress intensity factors for an underclad nozzle corner crack subjected to pressure and thermal loading

The opening mode linear elastic stress intensity factor, K{sub I}, was computed, via 3-D elastic finite element techniques, for an embedded elliptical crack located just beneath the cladding at the nozzle corner in a pressure vessel. Pressure loading and several thermal transient loading conditions were analyzed. The underclad crack was explicitly modeled and K{sub I} was computed explicitly, from the energy release rate, J. The variation of the maximum principal stress along the minor axis of the elliptical crack was determined for a companion set of thermal/structural analyses that were performed in the absence of the crack. These stress distributions were linearized into equivalent membrane and bending stress components that were used to compute K{sub I} from the Shah and Kobayashi solutions for near-surface embedded elliptical cracks. The explicitly computed K{sub I} values were found to be in very good agreement with the K{sub I} values computed from the flat plate'' solutions of Reference 1, for all the loading cases analyzed. An additional comparison was made between the energy release rate results and the results obtained by fitting the 1/{radical}r stress singularity to the crack tip stress field at the Gaussian integration points nearest to the crack front. The observedmore » excellent agreement between the two independent explicit'' computational methods served to verify each of the methods and also demonstrated the adequacy of the refinement of the finite element mesh. These observations support the use of the Shah and Kobayashi flat plate K{sub I} solutions for analyzing underclad cracks at the nozzle corner. 7 refs., 11 figs.« less