Global limit load solutions for thick-walled cylinders with circumferential cracks under combined internal pressure, axial force and bending moment − Part II: Finite element validation

• Elastic-perfectly plastic 3D finite element limiting analyses of cylinders.
• Thin/thick-walled cylinders with circumferential surface defects.
• Combined loading for pressure, end-force and global bending moment.
• Totally 1458 cases analysed and tabulated normalised results provided.
• Results used to validate the developed limit load solutions in Part I of this paper.

Global limit load solutions for thick-walled cylinders with circumferential internal/external surface and through-wall defects under combined positive/negative axial force, positive/negative global bending moment and internal pressure have been developed in Part I of this paper. In this Part II, elastic-perfectly plastic 3-D finite element (FE) analyses are performed for selected cases, covering a wide range of geometries and load combinations, to validate the developed limit load solutions. The results show that these limit load solutions can predict the FE data very well for the cases with shallow or deep and short cracks and are conservative. For the cases with very long and deep cracks, the predictions are reasonably accurate and more conservative.