Limit load solutions of thick-walled cylinders with fully circumferential cracks under combined internal pressure and axial tension

Limit load solutions for thick-walled cylinders with fully circumferential inner/outer cracks under combined internal pressure and axial tension are derived, considering the elastic–perfectly plastic material properties and von Mises yield criterion. The solutions are consistent with the thin-walled solution when the walls of the cylinders become thin compared with their radii. Elastic–perfectly plastic finite element (FE) analyses are performed to validate the solution. The results show that the solutions obtained in this paper agree reasonably well with the FE results and are conservative.