On the design of pressurized vessels against fracture

                                   by

                         Tim Folias, Univ Utah

                  AEB350,  3:15pm Monday, May 13, 1996


                                Abstract



  In this talk, the theory of fracture of pressurized vessels is
  developed.

  It is well-known that thin-walled pressurized vessels do resemble
  balloons and like balloons are subject to puncture and explosive loss.
  For a given material, under a specified stress field, e.g., due to an
  internal pressure, there will be a crack length in the material which
  will be self-propagating. Crack lengths less than the critical value
  will cause leakage but not destruction. However, if the critical crack
  length is ever reached, either by penetration or by the growth of a
  small fatigue crack, then an explosion and complete loss of the
  structure may occur. One conjectures, therefore, that there exists a
  certain relationship that governs the internal pressure and the
  critical crack length. Such a relationship is called  fracture
  criterion.

Requests for preprints and reprints to: folias@math.utah.edu
This source can be found at http://www.math.utah.edu/research/