A self-similar crack expansion method for three-dimensional cracks in an infinite or semi-infinite medium

Yonglin Xu*, Brian Moran, Ted Belytschko

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The Self-Similar Crack Expansion (SSCE) method is used to calculate stress intensity factors for three-dimensional cracks in an infinite medium or semi-infinite medium by the boundary integral element technique, whereby, the stress intensity factors at crack tips are determined by calculating the crack-opening displacements over the crack surface. For elements on the crack surface, regular integrals and singular integrals are precisely evaluated based on closed form expressions, which improves the accuracy. Examples show that this method yields very accurate results for stress intensity factors of penny-shaped cracks and elliptical cracks in the full space, with errors of less than 1% as compared with analytical solutions. The stress intensity factors of subsurface cracks are in good agreement with other analytical solutions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)217-235
Number of pages19
JournalActa Mechanica Solida Sinica
Volume9
Issue number3
StatePublished - 1996
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • 3-D cracks
  • Crack extension method
  • Self-similar crack expansion
  • Stress intensity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computational Mechanics

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