Author(s)

Elie A. Badr and George E. Nasr

Abstract

Positive displacement pumps used in ground-water investigation and well production, as well as large water distribution systems, bear a stress concentration area at the crossbore of their liquid ends. This stress concentration area promotes fatigue crack initiation and propagation while the pump is in service. The autofrettage process, an overpressurization process, is used to induce a compressive stress zone in the stress concentration area which significantly prolongs the life of these pumps. Three-dimensional finite element analysis with twenty nodded brick elements was used to estimate the magnitude of these beneficial stresses which are responsible for higher fatigue lives of these positive displacement pumps. Introduction The A

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