Development of a spinning cylinder facility for fracture studies

The design of a proposed fracture test facility for large areas of thick-section steel is outlined, in which the test specimen is a hollow cylinder which is rotated at high speed. The facility is capable of applying both primary and thermal stresses to the flawed cylinder. A small-scale version of the facility has been built and tested, in which hollow cylinders of upto 300 kg and outer diameter 0.55 m have been spun at speeds up to 7000 rpm giving stresses close to yield. Some of the advantages and difficulties of the technique are described. (orig.)