A COMPUTATIONAL-PROCEDURE FOR SIMULATION OF CRACK ADVANCE IN ARBITRARY 2-DIMENSIONAL DOMAINS

A finite-element-based method is proposed to accommodate the arbitrary motion of a crack under general two-dimensional configurations of loa ding and body geometry. The primary goal is to render consistently acc urate simulations of crack propagation, while maintaining a high degre e of computational efficiency and without a significant extra burden o n the analyst. The essence of the method, here called the Arbitrary Lo cal Mesh Replacement method, is the replacement of the finite element interpolant in the vicinity of the crack tip with one that is derived from a moving mesh patch. The boundary of the patch is not required to be coincident with background-mesh element edges. Accordingly, a weak statement of compatibility is enforced on the interface between the t wo meshes, thereby introducing a small set of additional, force-type u nknowns. Also, partial elements are manifest near the patch boundary; a special numerical integration rule is devised for their treatment.