Efficient Analysis of 3D Mixed-Mode Cracks of a Pressure Vessel Based on Schwartz-Neuman Alternating Method

The Schwartz-Neuman alternating method is employed to analyze 3D cracks in structural components with complicated geometries.The SIFs of Mode I, II and III for the mixed-mode cracks under complicated stress state are obtained from the alternating computing scheme between finite element method solution for the uncracked body and the symmetric Galerkin boundary element method solution for the crack in an infinite body. The SIFs of the different surface cracks postulated at a regular pipe and elliptical surface cracks at the nozzle-cylinder intersection of a typical reactor pressure vessel are investigated by using the Schwartz-Neuman alternating method. The comparison with other analysis models and results reported in the literature shows that the Schwartz-Neuman alternating method can efficiently and accurately evaluate SIFs of surface cracks of different shapes and depths with much smaller computational models, which indicates that the Schwartz-Neuman alternating method is an efficient method in the evaluation of the SIFs of 3D cracks.