Computational Fracture Mechanics

Abstract

The field of Computational Fracture Mechanics is reviewed. The paper focuses on the impact of computational methodology on furthering the understanding of fundamental fracture phenomena. The current numerical approaches to the solution of fracture mechanics problems, e.g. finite element methods, finite difference methods and boundary element methods are reviewed. The application of these techniques to the problems of linear elastic fracture problems is discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on three dimensional problems and the issues involved with surface crack geometries and stress intensity factor calculations.