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International Journal of Fatigue, Volume 50, May 2013, Pages 33-39.
Hiroshi Okada, Hiroshi Kawai, Takashi Tokuda, Yasuyoshi Fukui
Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda 278-8510, Japan and
University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyoku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan and
Kagoshima University, 1-21-40 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan.
Abstract
The authors have been developing a crack propagation analysis system that can deal with arbitrary shaped cracks in three-dimensional solids. The system is consisting of mesh generation software, a large-scale finite element analysis program and a fracture mechanics module. To evaluate the stress intensity factors, virtual crack closure-integral method (VCCM) for the quadratic tetrahedral finite element is adopted and is included in the fracture mechanics module. The rate and direction of crack propagation are predicted by using appropriate formulae based on the stress intensity factors. In this paper, the crack propagation system is briefly described and some numerical results are presented.
