No Arabic abstract
This study suggests a fast computational method for crack propagation, which is based on the extended finite element method (X-FEM). It is well known that the X-FEM might be the most popular numerical method for crack propagation. However, with the increase of complexity of the given problem, the size of FE model and the number of iterative steps are increased correspondingly. To improve the efficiency of X-FEM, an efficient computational method termed decomposed updating reanalysis (DUR) method is suggested. For most of X-FEM simulation procedures, the change of each iterative step is small and it will only lead a local change of stiffness matrix. Therefore, the DUR method is proposed to predict the modified response by only calculating the changed part of equilibrium equations. Compared with other fast computational methods, the distinctive characteristic of the proposed method is to update the modified stiffness matrix with a local updating strategy, which only the changed part of stiffness matrix needs to be updated. To verify the performance of the DUR method, several typical numerical examples have been analyzed and the results demonstrate that this method is a highly efficient method with high accuracy.
We show that for the simulation of crack propagation in quasi-brittle, two-dimensional solids, very good results can be obtained with an embedded strong discontinuity quadrilateral finite element that has incompatible modes. Even more importantly, we demonstrate that these results can be obtained without using a crack tracking algorithm. Therefore, the simulation of crack patterns with several cracks, including branching, becomes possible. The avoidance of a tracking algorithm is mainly enabled by the application of a novel, local (Gauss-point based) criterion for crack nucleation, which determines the time of embedding the localisation line as well as its position and orientation. We treat the crack evolution in terms of a thermodynamical framework, with softening variables describing internal dissipative mechanisms of material degradation. As presented by numerical examples, many elements in the mesh may develop a crack, but only some of them actually open and/or slide, dissipate fracture energy, and eventually form the crack pattern. The novel approach has been implemented for statics and dynamics, and the results of computed difficult examples (including Kalthoffs test) illustrate its very satisfying performance. It effectively overcomes unfavourable restrictions of the standard embedded strong discontinuity formulations, namely the simulation of the propagation of a single crack only. Moreover, it is computationally fast and straightforward to implement. Our numerical solutions match the results of experimental tests and previously reported numerical results in terms of crack pattern, dissipated fracture energy, and load-displacement curve.
Pavarino proved that the additive Schwarz method with vertex patches and a low-order coarse space gives a $p$-robust solver for symmetric and coercive problems. However, for very high polynomial degree it is not feasible to assemble or factorize the matrices for each patch. In this work we introduce a direct solver for separable patch problems that scales to very high polynomial degree on tensor product cells. The solver constructs a tensor product basis that diagonalizes the blocks in the stiffness matrix for the internal degrees of freedom of each individual cell. As a result, the non-zero structure of the cell matrices is that of the graph connecting internal degrees of freedom to their projection onto the facets. In the new basis, the patch problem is as sparse as a low-order finite difference discretization, while having a sparser Cholesky factorization. We can thus afford to assemble and factorize the matrices for the vertex-patch problems, even for very high polynomial degree. In the non-separable case, the method can be applied as a preconditioner by approximating the problem with a separable surrogate.
In this study, a multi-grid sampling multi-scale (MGSMS) method is proposed by coupling with finite element (FEM), extended finite element (XFEM) and molecular dynamics (MD) methods.Crack is studied comprehensively from microscopic initiations to macroscopic propagation by MGSMS method. In order to establish the coupling relationship between macroscopic and microscopic model, multi-grid FEM is used to transmit the macroscopic displacement boundary conditions to the atomic model and the multi-grid XFEM is used to feedback the microscopic crack initiations to the macroscopic model. Moreover, an image recognition based crack extracting method is proposed to extract the crack coordinate from the MD result files of efficiently and the Latin hypercube sampling method is used to reduce the computational cost of MD. Numerical results show that MGSMS method can be used to calculate micro-crack initiations and transmit it to the macro-crack model. The crack initiation and propagation simulation of plate under mode I loading is completed.
A representative volume element (RVE) based multi-scale method is proposed to investigate the mechanism of fatigue crack propagation by the molecular dynamics (MD) and the extended finite element methods(XFEM) in this study. An atomic model of carbon steel plate is built to study the behavior of fatigue crack at the micro scale by MD method. Then the RVE model for fatigue crack propagation should be built by fitting the data which was obtained from the MD result with the Paris law model. Moreover, the effect of micro-structural defects including interstitial atoms, vacancies have also been considered in this study. The results indicate that the micro-structural defects can deeply influence the values of Paris law constants and the life of the specimen can be evaluated by the proposed method.
Reduction of computational cost of solutions is a key issue to crack identification or crack propagation problems. One of the solution is to avoid re-meshing the domain when the crack position changes or when the crack extends. To avoid re-meshing, w