Stress intensity factor in c-ring shape

Abstract

C-Ring shaped thick-wall pipes are very common in power plant, chemical, processing, oil and gas industry. The C-Ring shaped equipment can be either thin or thick wall depending on the purpose of that particular equipment. Most often, cracks occur on the surface whether it is internally or externally of a thickwall cylinder. Especially when welding is used in the fabrication of the thick-wall CRing shape, cracks can easily occur due to solidification or hydrogen embrittlement at the welded joint, typically butt-welded joint. Therefore, it is important to investigate the stress distribution along the crack and determine the stress intensity factor of the cracks in both welded and non-welded displacement load thickwall C-Ring shape. Finite element analysis has been done by using the engineering software, ABAQUS CAE to study the stress distribution and to perform, stress intensity factor evaluation. In addition, weight function method shown also has been used to determine the stress intensity factor for both welded and non-welded thickwall C-Ring shape. The results from both methods have been compared for both cases as well. Lastly, investigation also has been done on the effect of the buttwelded joint profile in thick-wall C-Ring shape.