Abstract
In this paper, a selective activation strategy is studied in order to alleviate the issue of added compliance in the intrinsic cohesive zone model applied to arbitrary crack propagation. This strategy proceeds by first inserting cohesive elements between bulk elements and subsequently tying the duplicated nodes across the interface using controllable multi-point constraints before the analysis begins. Then, during the analysis, a part of the multi-point constraints are selectively released, thereby reactivating the corresponding cohesive elements and allowing cracks to initiate and propagate along the bulk element boundaries. The strategy is implemented in Abaqus/Standard using a user-defined multi-point constraint subroutine. Analysis results indicate that the strategy significantly alleviates the added compliance problem and reduces the computation time.
Highlights
The cohesive zone model (CZM) has been increasingly used for the fracture analysis of engineering materials
In the application of the CZM, cohesive elements are placed within the mesh between bulk material elements and provide potential crack paths at inter-element boundaries
A selective activation strategy was developed which alleviates the effects of added compliance issue inherent to the intrinsic CZM while avoiding the complexity of the extrinsic approach
Summary
The cohesive zone model (CZM) has been increasingly used for the fracture analysis of engineering materials. A selective activation strategy was developed which alleviates the effects of added compliance issue inherent to the intrinsic CZM while avoiding the complexity of the extrinsic approach In this strategy, the cohesive elements are inserted within the initial mesh but are subsequently deactivated by enforcing multi-point constraints (MPCs) which prevent the separation of cohesive element nodes. The MPCs may be selectively released upon satisfaction of a specified condition and the corresponding cohesive elements are reactivated This approach was developed in the framework of the intrinsic CZM so that the advantage of representing the fracture process solely by a given TSL was retained. The effect of the choice of activation parameters on the predicted solution as well as on the computation times was investigated
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