Investigation of different isoparametric axisymmetric crack tip elements applied to a complete circumferential surface crack in a pipe

Abstract

Standard isoparametric finite elements can be used as special crack tip elements in fracture mechanical computations by appropriately shifting the middle nodes in the neighbourhood of the crack tip. Such elements have already been applied to several plane and three-dimensional problems so that this method can be considered as commonly well accepted. In this paper the application of isoparametric axisymmetric elements as crack tip elements to a particular axisymmetric problem is studied. For that reason a complete circumferential crack at the inner surface of a pipe under axial tension is considered. The calculated stress intensity factors are compared with results from the literature. The general purpose finite element programs ASKA and ADINA have been used. In the first case triangular and quadrilateral elements were investigated, in the latter case quadrilateral and collapsed quadrilateral elements. In spite of the rather coarse grids good results for the stress intensity factor were found with the only exception of the collapsed quadrilateral elements.