Superposed element method for the numerical simulation of structure crack

Abstract

Crack is a key factor for the normal operation of structures. In this paper, a new method called Superposed Element Method (SEM) is proposed for the numerical simulation of crack analysis. Firstly, the structure containing crack is divided into two independent meshes. One is the global mesh without crack, the other is the local mesh of the crack and its vicinity. Then, the two independent meshes are coupled together, finite element method (FEM) is used for the local mesh and the complete elements outside of the coverage of the local mesh, and numerical manifold technique is applied to the incomplete elements. Finally, in order to couple the global mesh with the local mesh, the penalty stiffness is imposed on the boundaries of local mesh. The results of the numerical examples show that the pre-processing of SEM is quite simple, and the accuracy of the solution is relatively high. The method proposed is expected to be widely used for dynamic simulation of crack propagation.