A particle interaction-based crack model using an improved smoothed particle hydrodynamics for fatigue crack growth simulations

An efficient crack growth model using a total Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics based on the conservation of momentum, deformation gradient, and the asymmetric kernel is proposed to improve the flexibility of fatigue crack growth simulations. A set of particles are used to represent the physical domain. The crack region is modeled by eliminating the interaction between two particles that cross the crack line. The crack growth direction is determined by the maximum principal stress, in which the particle that has the maximum principal stress will lose its interactions with the neighbor particles. The proposed method's performance is tested by the fatigue crack growth problem, in which the crack growth direction and stress intensity factor show a good agreement with the references. It is found that the method is efficient for the crack propagation problem, which does not require particle update and any special treatment at the crack tips when the crack propagate.

Automated summary

An efficient crack growth model based on Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics is proposed, utilizing conservation of momentum and maximum principal stress to determine crack growth direction. Experimental results show good agreement with reference values.