Abstract
Recent catastrophic ruptures of several aluminum-magnesium pressurized air containers, used for diving purposes promoted an investigation as to the cause(s) of the failures. The results of the analysis revealed that catastrophic failure occured when a subcritical crack that grew by a stress corrosion mechanism in the presence of sea water, reached a critical size. In addition, the analysis indicates that critical crack size for unstable propagation was reached prior to wall penetration (which could have led to subsequent loss of pressure) resulting in explosion of the cylinder. Consequently, it is proposed that the design of these cylinders should consider the employment of more stress corrosion resistant alloys for sea diving applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Unknown Host Publication Title |
| Editors | V.S. Goel |
| Publisher | ASM |
| Pages | 55-59 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| ISBN (Print) | 0871702703 |
| State | Published - 1986 |