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The mesh density effect on stress intensity factor calculation using ABAQUS XFEM

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Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of the mesh density on reliability of XFEM stress intensity factor solutions using ABAQUS by comparing with the FE solutions using detailed crack-tip mesh. For analysis, a surface-cracked plate under mechanical and thermal loading is considered. Based on comparison, the requirements of mesh density in terms of the geometric dimension or of the enrichment radius are given.

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Abbreviations

a, c :

Crack depth and length respectively

H, W, t :

Plate height, width and thickness respectively

θ :

Angular position along the semi-elliptical crack front (see Fig. 1)

K :

Stress intensity factor

L e :

Length of cubic mesh

λ :

Parameter characterizing the mesh density (see Eq. (1))

n:

Contour number for contour integral calculation

ren :

Enrichment radius

rmax :

Maximum enrichment radius automatically calculated by ABAQUS

S :

Stress

T :

Temperature

x :

Distance along thickness (see Fig. 1)

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2016M2A8A1952771).

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Correspondence to Yun-Jae Kim.

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Recommended by Associate Editor Heung Soo Kim

Ji-Su Kim is a Ph.D. candidate of the Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea. He received his B.S. degree in 2017 from Korea University. His research interests are in applying the current structural integrity assessment procedure based on fracture mechanics to computational structural analysis.

Yun-Jae Kim is a Prof. of the Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1993 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. His current research covers computational structural analysis methods of components and developing micromechanical models of damage and fracture of structural integrity applications.

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Kim, JS., Lee, HJ., Kim, YJ. et al. The mesh density effect on stress intensity factor calculation using ABAQUS XFEM. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 4909–4916 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0931-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0931-8

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