A methodology is developed to simulate adaptively and hierarchically fatigue crack growth in structural components. Cracks are modelled by overlaying portions of the finite element mesh free of cracks with a discontinuous finite element field containing unconstrained double nodes along the discontinuity. Crack propagation is simulated by advancing the crack front in the superimposed mesh only keeping the underlying mesh fixed. Adaptivity in time and space domain together with the hierarchical nature of the method ensure both economical and reliable simulation of crack propagation. Numerical results of fatigue crack growth in the attachment lug were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data.
This paper presents elastic stress distributions near a cracktip in a continuous fiber composite. The material heterogeneity is explicitly accounted for by using the finite element method and a new Mesh Superposition Technique. This new technique superposes a fine mesh with heterogeneous material properties over a coarse mesh with homogeneous ones. The results indicate that the load transferred by fibers near a cracktip may be well described by the homogeneous orthotropic elastic K~ field. A technique to postprocess the K~ field to accurately obtain the detailed stress distributions within the fiber and matrix is also presented.
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