Author(s)

P. Bressolette, A. Vergne, C. Petit & X.B. Zhang

Abstract

Numerical path independent methods in t her mo-mechanical problems P. Bressolette," A. Vergne," C. Petit/ X.B. Zhang" " Laboratoire de Genie Civil, Universite Blaise Pascal, 63177 Aubiere Cedex, France * Laboratoire de Genie Civil, Universite de Limoges, 19300 Egletons, France ° Laboratoire de Mecanique et Thermomecanique des Materiaux et Strucutres, Universite Blaise Pascal, 03100 Montlugon, France ABSTRACT The prediction of the behaviour of cracked structures submitted to vari- ous kinds of actions is an important problem for their safety. The fracture mechanics concept, with a numerical modelling by finite element model, is kept in this work. A lot of methods have been developed to determine the cracking parameters which characterize the behaviour of such structures. A comparative analysis of some main energy methods aims to assess each of them for mechanical loading and for thermal loading ; they give promi- nence to the interest of Barsoum elements around the tip

Keywords