Disk With Two Cracks

This analysis shows two initial quarter circular corner cracks growing from a hole in a disk. The disk is modelled using a 45 degree sector containing a single hole. The geometry and uncracked mesh are shown in Figure 1 along with a mesh expanded to 180 degrees to better visualise the overall component shape.

Loading on the disk includes centrifugal load and applied displacements at the outer edges of the disk from a separate analysis including the surrounding structure.

The purpose of this analysis is to demonstrate the ability of the remeshing method in Zencrack to analyse multiple defects including transition from corner to through crack configuration in a single analysis. The calculated profiles for the two cracks are shown in Figure 2. It is noted that the final crack sizes are large in relation to the use of a sector model with boundary conditions obtained from an uncracked model - a "real" analysis would need a full 360 degree model and consideration of whether the larger crack sizes affect the applied displacement boundary condition.

Animations of the crack growth are shown in Figures 3, 4 and 5.