Comparison of Fracture Assessments of Corrosion Pits Using Sharp and Blunt Notched Crack Procedures

Historically, when determining failure criteria for a cracked structure, the structure has been assessed with the crack tip assumed to be infinitely sharp. For scenarios where it can be shown that the crack tip is blunt, such as for corrosion pits, this may lead to overly pessimistic assessments which can have implications for remnant life assessments of structures. Recent research has been carried out to evaluate structures with the crack tip as a blunt notch with a radius, and to develop a notch acuity parameter. That research led to formulae for adapting either the failure assessment curve or the failure assessment points utilising the notch acuity parameter for ferritic materials. This paper analyses various configurations of crack and specimen geometry, crack tip notch acuity parameter and crack spacing. It takes a finite element model of a cracked structure with an infinitely sharp crack and compares the failure parameters to those of equivalent notched cracks. The comparison is completed using the formulae derived in recent literature and those determined using finite element models with the blunt notched radii at the crack tip incorporated into the model.