Discussion on calculation of the local flexibility due to the crack in a pipe

The stress intensity factor plays an important role in the calculation of the local flexibility due to the crack in a cracked structure. Many researches on the stress intensity factors in a cracked beam or rotor have been made, but there are some difficulties in calculating the stress intensity factors in a cracked pipe. Maiti et al. obtained the local flexibility due to the crack in a pipe experimentally by deflection and natural frequency methods without calculating the stress intensity factor. In this paper, the stress intensity factor in a cracked pipe can be calculated by dividing a cracked pipe into a series of thin annuli, and a method to calculate the local flexibility due to the crack in a pipe is presented. The experiment results are given to verify the effectiveness of such a method.