Abstract: An adaptive mesh finite element model has been developed to predict the crack propagation direction as well as to calculate the stress intensity factors (SIFs), under linear-elastic assumption for mixed mode loading application. The finite element mesh is generated using the advancing front method. In order to suit the requirements of the fracture analysis, the generation of the background mesh and the construction of singular elements have been added to the developed program. The adaptive remeshing process is carried out based on the posteriori stress error norm scheme to obtain an optimal mesh. Previous works of the authors have proposed techniques for adaptive mesh generation of 2D cracked models. Facilitated by the singular elements, the displacement extrapolation technique is employed to calculate the SIF. The fracture is modeled by the splitting node approach and the trajectory follows the successive linear extensions of each crack increment. The SIFs values for two different case studies were estimated and validated by direct comparisons with other researchers work.

Key words: Linear-elastic fracture mechanics, Adaptive refinement, Stress intensity factors (SIFs), Crack propagation

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