Gokul.R, Dhayananth.S, Adithya.V, S.Suresh Kumar
In real life, components are subjected to cracking at many vulnerable locations such as the rivet holes. However, we do not consider for the presence of multiple cracks. Unlike components with a single crack, the behavior of these components under tension cannot be predicted. When two cracks approach one another, their stress fields influence each other and produce enhancing or shielding effect depending on the position of the cracks. In the present work, stress intensity factor (SIF) solution of multiple straight and oblique cracks in a rivet hole is considered. Crack depth ratios (a/t) of 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 have been considered for both straight and inclined cracks. SIF solution of single and multiple cracks were compared for different crack depth ratios. It is noted that as the crack depth ratio increases, SIF decreases significantly irrespective of the points along the crack front. At lower crack depths, the dominant mode of fracture is mode I. As the crack depth ratio increases, it is noted that, the effect of mode II and mode III fracture increases.