Fatigue Crack Growth in Thin-Wall Pipes Subjected to Bending

In this paper, a circumferential external surface flaw in a metallic round pipe under cyclic bending loading is considered. Because of very rapid changes in the geometrical parameters around the crack front region, the mesh generation of this region must be done with great care. The analysis of the fatigue crack growth is done in accordance with Paris law. The spread lane of the exterior defect is achieved from the graph of “α” vs. “relative crack depth”. The growth of fatigue crack is also analyzed (the comparative crack depth against loading runs diagram) with various initial crack “α” beneath periodic loading. Fatigue shape growth of primarily semi-elliptical peripheral surface flaws is shown. The weight of the Paris exponent (material constant) on fatigue crack propagation is presented as well. Furthermore, the “fatigue crack growth” progression of several specimens is evaluated experimentally by employing a manually-constructed experimental setup. Conclusively, the experimental results achieved by periodic bending loading tests are compared with the numerical results. Fatigue shape development of initially semi-elliptical external surface defects is illustrated. The effect of the Paris exponent (material constant) on fatigue crack propagation is shown as well. Moreover, the fatigue crack growth of several specimens is assessed experimentally using a manually-constructed experimental set up. Finally, the experimental results obtained by cyclic bending loading tests are compared.