Computational two-dimensional modeling of the stress intensity factor in a cracked metallic material

Abstract

Cracking of metallic engineering materials is of great importance due cost of replacing mechanical elements cracked and the danger of sudden structural failure of these elements. One of the most important parameters during consideration of the mechanical behavior of machine elements having cracking and that are subject to various stress conditions is the stress intensity factor near the crack tip called factor Kic. In this paper a computational model is developed for the direct assessment of stress concentration factor near to the crack tip and compared with the results obtained in the literature in which other models have been established, which consider continuity of the displacement of the crack tip (XBEM). Based on this numerical approximation can be establish that computational XBEM method has greater accuracy in Kic values obtained than the model implemented by the method of finite elements for the virtual nodal displacement through plateau function.