• 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.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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.733-751
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• 2007

The metis element method (Hung 1978) has been applied to analyse free edge interlaminar stresses and delamination in composite laminates, which are subjected to extension and bending. The paper recalls Lekhnitskii's solution for generalized plane strain state of composite laminate and Wang's singular solution for determination of stress singularity order and of eigen coefficients $C_m$ for delamination problem. Then the formulae of metis displacement finite element in two-dimensional problem are established. Computation of the stress intensity factors and the energy release rates are presented in details. The energy release rate, G, is computed by Irwin's virtual crack technique using metis elements. Finally, results of interlaminar stresses, the three stress intensity factors and the energy release rates for delamination crack in composite laminates under extension and bending are illustrated and compared with the literature to demonstrate the efficiency of the present method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.591-604
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• 2001

In this paper, a finite element with embedded displacement discontinuity which eliminates the need for remeshing of elements in the discrete crack approach is applied for the progressive fracture analysis of concrete structures. A finite element formulation is implemented with the extension of the principle of virtual work to a continuum which contains internal displacement discontinuity. By introducing a discontinuous displacement shape function into the finite element formulation, the displacement discontinuity is obtained within an element. By applying either a nonlinear or an idealized linear softening curve representing the fracture process zone (FPZ) of concrete as a constitutive equation to the displacement discontinuity, progressive fracture analysis of concrete structures is performed. In this analysis, localized progressive fracture simultaneous with crack closure in concrete structures under mixed mode loading is simulated by adopting the unloading path in the softening curve. Several examples demonstrate the capability of the analytical technique for the progressive fracture analysis of concrete structures.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.4_1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1992

This paper presents a p-version finite element approach for modeling the stress distribution around a circular hole in a finite strip subjected to membrane and flexural behaviors. Also, same problem with a crack emanating from a perforated tension strip was solved by virtual crack extension method. The p-version of the finite element method based on integrals of Legendre polynomials is shown to perform very well for modeling geometries with very steep stress gradients in the vicinity of a circular cutout. Here, the transfinite mapping technique for circular boundaries was used to avoid the discretization errors. The numerical results from the proposed scheme have a good comparison with those by Nisida, Howland, Newman etc. and the conventional finite element approach.