Author(s)

A. Boussekine, L. Ulmet & S. Caperaa

Abstract

The treatment of crack propagation in inhomogeneous materials using the boundary element method A. Boussekine," L. Ulmet," S. Caperaa* " Laboratoire de Genie Civil, Universite de Limoges, 19300 Egletons, France * Ecole Nationale d'Ingenieurs de Tarbes, 6500 Tarbes, France ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper consists in the implementation of a boundary element model for which the crack propagation is easily studied thanks to an automatic remeshing process. The traction singular quarter point element was used in order to improve the accuracy of the values of stress intensity factors. The Erdogan and Sih criterion allows us to determine the new growth direction after each step. Validity of this implement is demonstrated, with respect to experimental results, by the example of a holed plate. In this study, we can show the manner in which the crack may propagate when the distance between the initial crack's axis and the tangent hole is changed. Two distinct behav

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