An Element Free Galerkin analysis of steady dynamic growth of a mode I crack in elastic-plastic materials

An Element Free Galerkin (EFG) method based formulation for steady dynamic crack growth in elastic-plastic materials is developed. A domain convecting parallel to the steadily moving crack tip is employed. The EFG methodology eliminates the stringent mesh requirements of the Finite Element Method (F EM) for such problems. Both rate-independent materials and rare-dependent m aterials are considered. The material is characterized by von Mises yieldin g condition and an associated flow rule. For rate-independent materials, bo th the influence of crack speeds and that of strain hardening on the mechan ics of steady dynamic crack growth are investigated. For rate-dependent mat erials, only a non-hardening material is considered wi th emphasis on deter mining the influence of viscous properties of materials and crack speeds. T he influence of strain hardening on steady dynamic crack growth shows the s ame trends as for steady quasi-static crack growth. The simplifications use d in the literature in deriving analytical solutions for high strain-rate c rack growth have been examined thoroughly using the numerical results. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.