A boundary element approach for quasibrittle fracture propagation analysis

A simple numerical scheme suitable for tracing the fracture propagation pat h for structures idealized by means of Hillerborg's classical cohesive crac k model is presented. A direct collocation, multidomain boundary element me thod is adopted for the required space discretization. The algorithm propos ed is necessarily iterative in nature since the crack itinerary is a priori unknown. The fracture process is assumed to be governed by a path-dependen t generally nonlinear softening law. The potentialities of the method are i llustrated through two examples.