Application of the method of singular integral equations to the failure analysis of impact-damaged thin-walled pressurized structures

•A model of impact damage in the thin-walled pressurized structure is proposed.•The structural features of impact hole were addressed via 5-link crack model.•The problem was solved by method of singular integral equations.•Comparison of the calculated results to the test data showed a good agreement.•The developed approach can be used for the analysis of impact-damaged pressurized structures.

The present paper is devoted to the application of the method of singular integral equations to modeling of unstable crack propagation in thin-walled metallic pressurized structure subjected to a high-velocity impact. Damage pattern and mechanisms leading to the unstable crack growth are discussed. The critical stress and the critical crack length in the impact damaged structure are calculated by the method of mechanical quadratures. The validity of the developed model is tested by simulating the experimental results and numerical results obtained by other method.