Numerical simulation of two-dimensional crack propagation using stretching finite element method by Abaqus

Abstract

Fatigue is a phenomenon that appears in items subjected to cyclic loads. Thus, rupture and partial oxidation are initiated from the beginning of the process. For this, the study of such a problem of material in fracture mechanics is based on the numerical analysis of the characteristics of a crack. In this article, we propose a modelling of crack propagation by a new method of stretching the mesh by 2D finite element in mixed mode, based on the creation of the elements through a program in the computer language Fortran. The parametric mesh with 4 nodes (CPE4) was created to make the simulation and to characterise the stress intensity factors, by the Abaqus computer code. For this, the validation of stretching finite element method (SFEM) results is done by other methods: extended finite element method (XFEM) and analytical method to simulate the crack propagation. The stress intensity factor (SIF) is an essential parameter of this study. Two possibilities for determining the SIF have been retained: one by the numerical method of our choice and the other by the analytical method. Parameters to characterise the stress state at the crack front KI and KII were evaluated in two stages one by the crack length and the other by the a/c ratio.