• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.182-191
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• 2002

The reliable stress intensity factor analysis is required for fracture mechanics design or safety evaluation of mechanical joints at which cracks often initiate and grow. It has been reported that cracks in mechanical joints usually nucleate as corner cracks at the faying surface of joints and grow as elliptical arc through cracks. In this paper, three dimensional finite element analyses are performed for elliptical arc through cracks in mechanical joints. Thereafter stress intensity factors along elliptical crack front including two surface points are determined by the virtual crack closure technique. Virtual crack closure technique is a method to calculate stress intensity factor using the finite element analysis and can be applied to non-orthogonal mesh. As a result, the effects of clearance on the stress intensity factor are investigated and crack shape are then predicted.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1996-2008
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• 2004

A seamless analysis of material behavior incorporating complex geometry and crack- tip modeling is one of greatly interesting topics in engineering and computational fracture mechanics fields. However, there are still large gaps between the industrial applications and fundamental academic studies due to a time consuming detailed modeling. In order to resolve this problem, a numerical method to calculate an energy release rate by virtual crack closure technique was proposed in this paper. Both free mesh method and finite element method have been utilized and, thereafter, robust local and global elements for various geometries and boundary conditions were generated. A validity of the proposed method has been demonstrated through a series of fracture mechanics analyses without tedious crack-tip meshing.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.79-88
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• 1999

The purpose of this paper is to develop a mathematical expression for computing crack angles based on reinforcement volumes in the longitudinal and transverse directions, member end-fixity and length-to-width aspect ratio. For this a reinforced concrete beam-column element is assumed to possess a series of potential crack planes represented by a number of differential truss elements. Depending on the boundary condition, a constant angle truss or a variable angle truss is employed to model the cracked structural concrete member. The truss models are then analyzed using the virtual work method of analysis to relate forces and deformations. Rigorous and simplified solution schemes are presented. An equation to estimate the theoretical crack angle is derived by considering the energy minimization on the virtual work done over both the shear and flexural components the energy minimization on the virtual work done over both the shear and flexural components of truss models. The crack angle in this study is defined as the steepest one among fan-shaped angles measured from the longitudinal axis of the member to the diagonal crack. The theoretical crack angle predictions are validated against experimentally observed crack angle reported by previous researchers in the literature. Good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.55-59
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• 2002

Delamination means that cracking occurs on the interface layer between composite laminates. In this paper, to predict the delamination growth in composite laminates subjected to low-velocity impact, the unit load method was introduced, and an eighteen-node 3-D finite element analysis, based on assumed strain mixed formulation, was conducted. Strain energy release rate, necessary to determine the delamination growth, was calculated by using the virtual crack closure technique. The unit load method saves the computation time more than the re-meshing method. The virtual crack closure technique enables the strain energy release rate to be easily calculated, because information of the singular stress field near the crack tip is not required. Hence, the delamination growth in composite laminates that are subjected to low-velocity impact can be efficiently predicted using the above-mentioned methods.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.80-88
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• 2010

A simple computational model for modeling of subsurface crack growth under cyclic contact loading is presented. In this model, it is assumed that the initial fatigue crack will initiate in the region of the maximum equivalent stress at certain depth under the contacting surface. The position and magnitude of the maximum equivalent stress are determined by using the equivalent contact model, which is based on the Hertzian contact conditions with frictional forces. The virtual crack extension method is used for simulation of the fatigue crack growth from the initial crack up to the formation of the surface pit due to contact fatigue. The relationships between the stress intensity factor and crack length are then determined for various combinations of equivalent contact radii and loadings.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.221-228
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• 1989

The objective of this paper is to develop a numerical technique for analyzing crack driving forces in multi-phase materials. The analysis was based on finite element method coupled with a virtual crack extension technique which is known as the most efficient tool in computational fracture mechanics analysis. The modified J-integral method, proposed by Miyamoto and Kikuchi for the analysis of dual-phase material was carried out by subtracting the J-values for contours surrounding each phase boundary from the J-values for overall contour. It was shown that the proposed numerical procedure, based on the modified J-integral coupled with a virtual crack extension technique, can be used as an effective numerical tool for determining crack driving forces in multi-phase materials.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.245-256
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• 1994

A new axisymmetric crack model is proposed on the basis of p-version of the finite element method limited to theory of small scale yielding. To this end, axisymmetric stress element is formulated by integrals of Legendre polynomial which has hierarchical nature and orthogonality relationship. The virtual crack extension method has been adopted to calculate the stress intensity factors for 3-D axisymmetric cracked bodies where the potential energy change as a function of position along the crack front is calculated. The sensitivity with respect to the aspect ratio and Poisson locking has been tested to ascertain the robustness of p-version axisymmetric element. Also, the limit value that is an exact solution obtained by FEM when degree of freedom is infinite can be estimated using the extrapolation equation based on error prediction in energy norm. Numerical examples of thick-walled cylinder, axisymmetric crack in a round bar and internal part-thorough cracked pipes are tested with high precision.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.1A
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• pp.39-48
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• 2012

This study deals with numerical determination of stress intensity factors of adhesively patch-repaired plates with cracks at V-shaped or semicircular notches. The p-convergent anisoparametric model are considered and then three-dimensional virtual crack closure technique is presented using formulations of anisoparametric elements. In assumed displacement fields of an element, strain-displacement relations and three-dimensional constitutive equations are derived with three-dimensional hierarchical shape functions expanded from one-dimensional Lobatto functions. Transfinite mapping technique is used to represent a circular boundary. The present model provides accuracy and simplicity in terms of stress concentration factor, stress distribution, the number of degrees of freedom, and non-dimensional stress intensity factor as compared with previous works in literatures. Stress intensity factors obtained by the three-dimensional virtual crack closure technique are estimated with respect to the variation of width of finite plate, radius of notch root, angular inclination of V-shaped notch, and crack length.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.665-677
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• 2014

A numerical method, using a special mixed finite element associated with the virtual crack extension technique, has been developed to evaluate the energy release rate for kinking cracks. The element is two dimensional 7-node mixed finite element with 5 displacement nodes and 2 stress nodes. The mixed finite element ensures the continuity of stress and displacement vectors on the coherent part and the free edge effect. This element has been formulated starting from a parent element in a natural plane with the aim to model different types of cracks with various orientations. Example problems with kinking cracks in a homogeneous material and bimaterial are presented to assess the computational accuracies.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.2172-2180
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• 1993

Under general loadings, including body forces, crack-face tractions and thermal loading, the energy release rate equation for a two-dimensional cracked body is presented. Defining the virtual crack extension as the variation of the geometry, the equation is directly derived by a shape design sensitivity of the potential energy. Although the form of the derived energy release rate equation is different from other researchers's results, the three example show that the former is exactly the same as the latter. However, the final integral equation do not involve the derivative of the displacement on the crack surface and crack tip region, thereby improving the numerical accuracy in the computation of the energy relase rate. Moreover, as it was derived from the governing equation including non-linear elasticity without special assumptions, the energy release rate of a elasto-plastic fracture can be obtained and any numerical stress analysis method can be applied.