Determination of stress intensity factor with direct stress approach using finite element analysis

In this article, a direct stress approach based on finite element analysis to determine the stress intensity factor is improved. Firstly, by comparing the rigorous solution against the asymptotic solution for a problem of an infinite plate embedded a central crack, we found that the stresses in a restrictive interval near the crack tip given by the rigorous solution can be used to determine the stress intensity factor, which is nearly equal to the stress intensity factor given by the asymptotic solution. Secondly, the crack problem is solved numerically by the finite element method. Depending on the modeling capability of the software, we designed an adaptive mesh model to simulate the stress singularity. Thus, the stress result in an appropriate interval near the crack tip is fairly approximated to the rigorous solution of the corresponding crack problem. Therefore, the stress intensity factor may be calculated from the stress distribution in the appropriate interval, with a high accuracy.

COMPUTATION OF STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS BY THE SUB-REGION MIXED FINITE ELEMENT METHOD OF LINES

Based on the sub-region generalized variationM principle, a sub-region mixed version of the newly-developed semi-analytical ＇finite element method of lines＇ （FEMOL） is proposed in this paper for accurate and efficient computation of stress intensity factors （SIFs） of two-dimensional notches/cracks. The circular regions surrounding notch/crack tips are taken as the complementary energy region in which a number of leading terms of singular solutions for stresses are used, with the sought SIFs being among the unknown coefficients. The rest of the arbitrary domain is taken as the potential energy region in which FEMOL is applied to obtain approximate displacements. A mixed system of ordinary differential equations （ODEs） and algebraic equations is derived via the sub-region generalized variational principle. A singularity removal technique that eliminates the stress parameters from the mixed equation system eventually yields a standard FEMOL ODE system, the solution of which is no longer singular and is simply and efficiently obtained using a standard general-purpose ODE solver. A number of numerical examples, including bi-material notches/cracks in anti-plane and plane elasticity, are given to show the generally excellent performance of the proposed method.

Evaluation of mixed-mode stress intensity factors by extended finite element method

Extended finite element method (XFEM) implementation of the interaction integral methodology for evaluating the stress intensity factors (SIF) of the mixed-mode crack problem is presented. A discontinuous function and the near-tip asymptotic function are added to the classic finite element approximation to model the crack behavior. Two-state integral by the superposition of actual and auxiliary fields is derived to calculate the SIFs. Applications of the proposed technique to the inclined centre crack plate with inclined angle from 0° to 90° and slant edge crack plate with slant angle 45°, 67.5° and 90° are presented, and comparisons are made with closed form solutions. The results show that the proposed method is convenient, accurate and computationally efficient.

Using Extended Finite Element Method for Computation of the Stress Intensity Factor, Crack Growth Simulation and Predicting Fatigue Crack Growth in a Slant-Cracked Plate of 6061-T651 Aluminum

The 6061-T651 aluminium alloy is one of the most common aluminium alloys for marine components and general structures. The stress intensity factor (SIF) is an important parameter for estimating the life of the cracked structure. In this paper, the stress intensity factors of a slant-cracked plate, which is made of 6061-T651 aluminum, have been calculated using extended finite element method (XFEM) and finite element method (FEM) in ABAQUS software and the results were compared with theoretical values. Numerical values obtained from these two methods were close to the theoretical values. In simulations of crack growth at different crack angles, the crack propagation angle values were closer to the theoretical values in XFEM method. Also, the accuracy and validity of fatigue crack growth curve were much closer to the theoretical graph in XFEM than the FEM. Therefore, in this paper the capabilities of XFEM were realized in analyzing issues such as cracks.

Loaded multi-tooth contact analysis and calculation for contact stress of face-gear drive with spur involute pinion

The analytical method based on "Hertz theory on normal contact of elastic solids" and the numerical method based on finite element method (FEM) calculating the contact stress of face-gear drive with spur involute pinion were introduced, and their relative errors are below 10%, except edge contact, which turns out that these two methods can compute contact stress of face-gear drive correctly and effectively. An agreement of the localized bearing contact stress is gotten for these two methods, making sure that the calculation results of FEM are reliable. The loaded meshing simulations of multi-tooth FEM model were developed, and the determination of the transmission error and the maximal load distribution factor of face-gear drive under torques were given. A formula for the maximal load distribution factor was proposed. By introducing the maximal load distribution factor in multi-tooth contact zone, a method for calculating the maximal contact stress in multi-tooth contact can be given. Compared to FEM, the results of these formulae are proved to be reliable, and the relative errors are below 10%.

Enhancing Stress Intensity Factor Reduction in Cracks Originating from a Circular Hole in a Rectangular Plate under Uniaxial Stress through Piezoelectric Actuation

Circular holes are commonly employed in engineering designs;however, they often serve as locations where cracks initiate and propagate. This paper explores a novel approach to structural repair by utilizing piezoelectric actuators. The primary focus of this study is to investigate the influence of an adhesively bonded piezoelectric actuator patch placed above a circular hole on the stress intensity factor (SIF) in an aluminium plate. The plate is subjected to uniaxial tensile stress, while the piezoelectric actuator is excited with varying voltage levels. The analysis is conducted using the finite element method (FEM), a powerful numerical technique for simulating complex structures. The study assesses the stress distribution and employs the SIF as an adequate criterion for evaluating the impact of different patch configurations. The results indicate a strong correlation between the applied voltage and the SIF. Whether the SIF increases or decreases depends on the polarization of the piezoelectric actuator. Particularly noteworthy is the finding that rectangular patches in a horizontal orientation significantly reduce the SIF compared to other patch geometries. Moreover, double-sided patches exhibit a pronounced decrease in the SIF compared to single-sided patches. In summary, this research underscores the potential of piezoelectric actuators in mitigating stress intensity in structures with circular hole with crack initiation. It offers valuable insights into the influence of applied voltage, patch geometry, and patch placement on the SIF, thereby contributing to developing effective strategies for enhancing structural integrity.

Finite element simulation of stress intensity factors in elastic-plastic crack growth

A finite element program developed elastic-plastic crack propagation simulation using Fortran language. At each propagation step, the adaptive mesh is automatically refined based on a posteriori h-type refinement using norm stress error estimator. A rosette of quarter-point elements is then constructed around the crack tip to facilitate the prediction of crack growth based on the maximum normal stress criterion and to calculate stress intensity factors under plane stress and plane strain conditions. Crack was modelled to propagate through the inter-element in the mesh. Some examples are presented to show the results of the implementation.

Extraction of Stress Intensity Factors by Using the P-Version Finite Element Method and Contour Integral Method

The stress intensity factors(SIFs)for two-dimensional cracks are extracted using the p-version finite element method(P-FEM)and the contour integral method.Several numerical experiments,e.g.,crack initiating from the edge of a circular hole under an unidirectional uniform tension and two equal-length,unequal-length hole-edge cracks,respectively,at a rectangular plate,an inclined centered crack under uniaxial tension at a square plate and a pipeline crack model,are used to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the approaches.SIFs are presented for the effects of various crack lengths and length-width ratio.Numerical results are analyzed and compared with reference solutions and results obtained by the Voronoi cell finite element method,boundary element method,high-order extended finite element method(high-order XFEM)and commercial finite element software ABAQUS in the available literature.Numerical results are in good agreement with the benchmark problems and show faster convergence rate,higher accuracy and better numerical stability.

A Finite Element Study of the Influence of Graphite Nodule Characteristics on a Subsurface Crack in a Ductile Cast Iron Matrix under a Contact Load

This paper describes a study of the effects of graphite nodule characteristics on a subsurface crack in austempered ductile iron(ADI).A representative specimen of ADI,subjected to sliding contact load,is modeled using finite elements aiming to obtain the shear stress intensity factor(KII).The parameters varied were(i)the nodule diameter(two different values were considered),(ii)the distance between the nodule and the tip of the crack and(iii)the position of the load relative to the tip of the crack.The results of the numerical simulations show that the smaller diameter nodule has a larger influence on KII,suggesting a higher contact fatigue crack propagation rate in the material with the smaller nodule.These results are the opposite of those observed in experimental studies and would appear to indicate that other factors should be also considered to ensure realistic estimates of the contact fatigue strength of ADI.

Evaluation of Stress Intensity Factors for Multiple Cracked Circular Disks Under Crack Surface Tractions with SBFEM

Stress intensity factors （SIFs） for the cracked circular disks under different distributing surface tractions are evaluated with the scaled boundary finite element method （SBFEM）. In the SBFEM, the analytical advantage of the solution in the radial direction allows SIFs to be directly determined from its definition, therefore no special crack-tip treatment is necessary. Furthermore anisotropic material behavior can be treated easily. Different distributions of surface tractions are considered for the center and double-edge-cracked disks. The benchmark examples are modeled and an excellent agreement between the results in the present study and those in published literature is found. It shows that SBFEM is effective and possesses high accuracy. The SIFs of the cracked orthotropic material circular disks subjected to different surface tractions are also evaluated. The technique of substructure is applied to handle the multiple cracks problem.

Evaluation of Stress Intensity Factors Subjected to Arbitrarily Distributed Tractions on Crack Surfaces

The stress intensity factors （SIF） considering arbitrarily distributed surface tractions are evaluated based on the sealed boundary finite element method （SBFEM）. The semi-analytical solving process for the stress intensity factors including the effects of surface tractions is presented. Provided are the numerical examples for the evaluation of mode I and Ⅱ stress intensity factors with linear and non-linear distributing forces loaded on the crack surfaces. The crack problems of anisotropy and bimaterial interface are also studied and the stress intensity factors of single-edge-cracked orthotropic material and bi-material interface problems with surface tractions are calculated. Comparisons with the analytical solutions show that the proposed approach is effective and possesses high accuracy.

THE EVALUATION OF STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS OF PLANE CRACK FOR ORTHOTROPIC PLATE WITH EQUAL PARAMETER BY F2LFEM

In this paper, the evaluation of stress intensity factor of plane crack problems for orthotropic plate of equal-parameter is investigated using a fractal two-level finite element method （F2LFEM）. The general solution of an orthotropic crack problem is obtained by assimilating the problem with isotropic crack problem, and is employed as the global interpolation function in F2LFEM. In the neighborhood of crack tip of the crack plate, the fractal geometry concept is introduced to achieve the similar meshes having similarity ratio less than one and generate an infinitesimal mesh so that the relationship between the stiffness matrices of two adjacent layers is equal. A large number of degrees of freedom around the crack tip are transformed to a small set of generalized coordinates. Numerical examples show that this method is efficient and accurate in evaluating the stress intensity factor （SIF）.

Thermoelastic analysis of multiple defects with the extended finite element method

In this paper, the extended finite element method (XFEM) is adopted to analyze the interaction between a single macroscopic inclusion and a single macroscopic crack as well as that between multiple macroscopic or microscopic defects under thermal/mechanical load. The effects of different shapes of multiple inclusions on the material thermomechanical response are investigated, and the level set method is coupled with XFEM to analyze the interaction of multiple defects. Further, the discretized extended finite element approximations in relation to thermoelastic problems of multiple defects under displacement or temperature field are given. Also, the interfaces of cracks or materials are represented by level set functions, which allow the mesh assignment not to conform to crack or material interfaces. Moreover, stress intensity factors of cracks are obtained by the interaction integral method or the M-integral method, and the stress/strain/stiffness fields are simulated in the case of multiple cracks or multiple inclusions. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the accuracy of our proposed method.

Effect of crack face contact on dynamic stress intensity factors for a hole-edge crack

In order to determine the dynamic stress intensity factors(DSIFs)for a single edge crack at the center hole of a finite plate under a compressive step loading parallel to the crack,the finite element method was employed to solve the cracked plate problem.The square-root stress singularity around the crack tip was simulated by quarter point singular elements collapsed by 8-node two-dimensional isoparametric elements.The DSIFs with and without considering crack face contact situations were evaluated by using the displacement correlation technique,and the influence of contact interaction between crack surfaces on DSIFs was investigated.The numerical results show that if the contact interaction between crack surfaces is ignored,the negative mode I DSIFs may be obtained and a physically impossible interpenetration or overlap of the crack surfaces will occur.Thus the crack face contact has a significant influence on the mode I DSIFs.

Application of scaled boundary finite element method in static and dynamic fracture problems

The scaled boundary finite element method （SBFEM） is a recently developed numerical method combining advantages of both finite element methods （FEM） and boundary element methods （BEM） and with its own special features as well. One of the most prominent advantages is its capability of calculating stress intensity factors （SIFs） directly from the stress solutions whose singularities at crack tips are analytically represented. This advantage is taken in this study to model static and dynamic fracture problems. For static problems, a remeshing algorithm as simple as used in the BEM is developed while retaining the generality and flexibility of the FEM. Fully-automatic modelling of the mixed-mode crack propagation is then realised by combining the remeshing algorithm with a propagation criterion. For dynamic fracture problems, a newly developed series-increasing solution to the SBFEM governing equations in the frequency domain is applied to calculate dynamic SIFs. Three plane problems are modelled. The numerical results show that the SBFEM can accurately predict static and dynamic SIFs, cracking paths and load-displacement curves, using only a fraction of degrees of freedom generally needed by the traditional finite element methods.

STUDY ON THREE-DIMENSIONAL FINITE BODIES CONTAINING CRACKS USING THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD OF LINES

The three-dimensional finite element method of lines is presented, and the basic processing description of 3D FEMOL in cracking questions is given in detail. Applications to 3D bodies with cracks indicate that good accuracy can be obtained with relatively coarse girds. In particular, application to the tension specimen shows very good agreement with the evaluation of stress intensity factors, which is better than the results of other methods. This implies a considerable potential for using this method in the 3D analysis of finite geometry solids and suggests a possible extension of this technique to nonlinear material behavior.

COMBINED DELAUNAY TRIANGULATION AND ADAPTIVE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR CRACK GROWTH ANALYSIS

The paper presents the utilization of the adaptive Delaunay triangulation in the finite element modeling of two dimensional crack propagation problems, including detailed description of the proposed procedure which consists of the Delaunay triangulation algorithm and an adaptive remeshing technique. The adaptive remeshing technique generates small elements around crack tips and large elements in the other regions. The resulting stress intensity factors and simulated crack propagation behavior are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the procedure. Three sample problems of a center cracked plate, a single edge cracked plate and a compact tension specimen, are simulated and their results assessed.

METHOD TO CALCULATE STRESS INTENSITY FACTOR OF V-NOTCH IN BI-MATERIALS

Based on Zak＇s stress function, the eigen-equation of stress singularity ofbi-materials with a V-notch was obtained. A new definition of stress intensity factor for a perpendicular interfacial V-notch of bi-material was put forward. The effects of shear modulus and Poisson＇s ratio of the matrix material and attaching material on eigen-values were analyzed. A generalized expression for calculating/（i of the perpendicular V-notch of bi-materials was obtained by means of stress extrapolation. Effects of notch depth, notch angle and Poisson＇s ratio of materials on the singular stress field near the tip of the V-notch were analyzed systematically with numerical simulations. As an example, a finite plate with double edge notches under uniaxial uniform tension was calculated by the method presented and the influence of the notch angle and Poisson＇s ratio on the stress singularity near the tip of notch was obtained.

Simulation Research on Stress Intensity Factors of Different Crack Aspect Ratios on Hollow Axles

Because of the wicked service environment of the high speed train, it is possible that the hollow axle of the train may encounter the foreign object damage and form a sharp notch. Under the fatigue loading a crack can initiate from the notch and propagate to failure. It is noted that the stress intensity factor is the control parameter of the crack propagating, for the purpose of getting the more exact propagation characteristics, the stress intensity factor is studied mainly. The service loads of hollow axles are defined, and the stress distribution of hollow axles is obtained according to the load spectrum. The semi-ellipse crack configuration is defined with three parameters： the aspect ratio, the relative depth and the relative location along the crack front. Quarter point 20-node isoparametric degenerate singular elements are used for the region near the crack tip. The finite element model of crack extension of hollow axle is created, and the crack front is dispersed which can realize orthogonal extension. Based on this the stress intensity factors of crack front were calculated, and the distribution rules of the stress intensity factors of different initial crack shapes are obtained. The conclusions are compared with that of the analytic method and they agree with each other very well, and the calculating results show that there is a close relationship between the stress intensity factor and the initial crack shape. For a round crack the stress intensity factor at the surface point increases faster than the one at the center point with the crock propagation. However, for a narrow crack, the results are in contrast with that of a round one. So, all the cracks with different shapes propagate toward to a similar shape, and they grow at this shape to end. The study may contribute to the crack propagate characteristics research.

STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS CALCULATION IN ANTI-PLANE FRACTURE PROBLEM BY ORTHOGONAL INTEGRAL EXTRACTION METHOD BASED ON FEMOL

For an anti-plane problem, the differential operator is self-adjoint and the corresponding eigenfunctions belong to the Hilbert space. The orthogonal property between eigenfunctions （or between the derivatives of eigenfunctions） of anti-plane problem is exploited. We developed for the first time two sets of radius-independent orthogonal integrals for extraction of stress intensity factors （SIFs）, so any order SIF can be extracted based on a certain known solution of displacement （an analytic result or a numerical result）. Many numerical examples based on the finite element method of lines （FEMOL） show that the present method is very powerful and efficient.