AN INDIRECT BOUNDARY-ELEMENT METHOD FOR 3-DIMENSIONAL DYNAMIC FRACTURE-MECHANICS

Indirect boundary element methods (fictitious load and displacement di scontinuity) have been developed for the analysis of three-dimensional elastostatic and elastodynamic fracture mechanics problems. A set of boundary integral equations for fictitious loads and displacement disc ontinuities have been derived. The stress intensity factors were obtai ned by the stress equivalent method for static loading. For dynamic lo ading the problem was studied in Laplace transform space where the num erical calculation procedure, for the stress intensity factor K-I(p), is the same as that for the static problem. The Durbin inversion metho d for Laplace transforms was used to obtain the stress intensity facto rs in the time domain K-I(t). Results of this analysis are presented f or a square bar, with either a rectangular or a circular crack, under static and dynamic loads.