Crack Growth and Instable Fracture of Rotating Disks

The fracture of rotating disks that have cracks and/or notches is predicted employing the crack instability criterion based on the J-integral R-curve approach characterizing a material resistance to fracture. The J-integrals of cracked rotating disks are calculated by an elastic-plastic finite element method taking account of the thickness effects. Spin tests were carried out on disks having fatigue cracks and/or notches and the crack extensions as well as the bursting speeds of the disk specimens were measured. It is shown that the predicted values of bursting speed are in good agreement with those obtained by the experiment.