An interaction integral method coupled with special crack tip elements for evaluation of stress intensity factors

Accurate computation of stress intensity factors (SIFs) for two-dimensional cracks by an interaction integral method combined with special crack tip elements is presented in this paper. SIFs are of great importance to fracture mechanics analysis. Due to special variation of displacement around the crack tip and the singularity and near singularity of integrals in interaction integral method, the results obtained by which are affected by the radius of the closed loop. Thus, a general method for singular integrals and nearly singular integrals is applied in the paper. With the interaction integral method coupled with the proposed special crack tip element, more stable and accurate values of the SIFs can be obtained. Numerical examples have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Automated summary

This paper presents an accurate computation method for stress intensity factors (SIFs) of two-dimensional cracks using an interaction integral method combined with special crack tip elements. The method considers the special variation of displacement around the crack tip and applies a general method for singular integrals and nearly singular integrals. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through numerical examples.