A parametric study of bulging factors for unstiffened and stiffened cylindrical shells
aDepartamento de Engenharia de Estruturas e Fundações da Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Almeida Prado, trav.2 no. 83, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo SP 05508-900, Brazil bInstituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, Praça Marechal Eduardo Gomes, 50, S.J. dos Campos, São Paulo SP 12228-904, Brazil
ABSTRACT
Bulging factors represent the ratio of increase in stress intensity factors for a pressurized shell when compared with plate conditions. Therefore, they influence stress-intensity-based crack-propagation methodologies. Since in a real fuselage the bulging factors depend on a number of parameters such as pressure level, skin thickness, structural area of the stiffeners, and distance between stiffeners, among others, a parametric study that gives insight into the influence of these parameters on the bulging factors is of great value. In this paper, we present selected results of such a study and summarize a reliable methodology to obtain the bulging factors.
Keywords:
Bulging; Crack propagation; Pressurized shell; Locking; Stress intensity factors; Shell modeling