Finite element simulation of gaseous detonation-driven fracture in thin aluminum tube using cohesive element

Detonation-driven fracture problems in tube under dynamic load have received plenty of attention because of various ranges of applications, such as oil and gas pipeline systems, new rocket engine such as pulse detonation engine, and pressurized aircraft fuselages. This paper reports the crack growth modeling in a thin aluminum tube under gaseous detonation load. Because of three-dimensional fracture dynamics with gas dynamics coupled phenomena, analytical modeling is complicated. Thus, a finite element method was applied. The finite element modeling and simulation of the tube under detonation moving load were performed using commercial code Abaqus. This simulation leads to obtain structural response of the tube to detonation load. The simulations were compared with experimental and analytical results from the literature for elasto-dynamic response of cylindrical shells with finite length under internal detonation loading. Cohesive element with traction–separation law was used for crack growth modeling along with crack tip opening displacement value obtained from experimental–numerical analysis from previous research. The final section of the paper is dedicated to investigating differences and comparisons between the numerical crack propagation simulations and experimental results reported in the literature. It has been demonstrated that using cohesive elements with some modifications can improve the numerical accuracy. The obtained results are more similar to the experimental results than numerical results available in literature.