Fracture Analysis of Externally Semi-Elliptical Crack in a Spherical Pressure Vessel with Hoop-Wrapped Composite

In this paper the effect of composite hoop-wrapped on stress intensity factor for semi-elliptical external crack which located in spherical pressure vessel, were investigated through the Finite Element Analysis. In order to find the effect of some parameters such as composite thickness and width, internal pressure and crack geometry, comparisons between different cases were done and discussed in detail. The result show that repairing crack with composite hoop-wrapped, can significantly reduce the stress intensity factor along the crack front.