Novel weight functions and stress intensity factors for quarterelliptical cracks in lug attachments

Abstract

In this paper, a general weight function is developed to calculate the stress intensity factors (SIFs) for quarter-elliptical cracks in a wide range of lug attachment family. For this purpose, a series of finite element analyses are performed. Finally, using this unique extracted weight function, the influence of the pin loading model and crack parameters (aspect ratio and relative depth of the quarter-elliptical crack) on the SIFs is evaluated in the cracked lug attachments. The results of the present work are compared with some data available in the literature, and the agreement is satisfactory.