Development of stress intensity factors for surface cracks with large aspect ratio in plates

Li, Y. ; Hasegawa, Kunio; Katsumata, Genshichiro; Osakabe, Kazuya*; Okada, Hiroshi*

A number of surface cracks with large aspect ratio have been detected in components of nuclear power plants in recent years. The depths of these cracks are even larger than the half of crack lengths. However, the solutions of the stress intensity factor were not provided for semi-elliptical surface cracks with large aspect ratio in the current fitness-for-service codes. In this study, in order to conduct integrity assessment for cracked components, the solutions of the stress intensity factor were calculated using finite element analysis for semi-elliptical surface cracks with large aspect ratio in plates. Solutions were provided at both the deepest and the surface points of the surface cracks. Some of solutions were compared with the available existing results. As the result, it was concluded that the solutions proposed in this paper are applicable in engineering applications.