Cookies

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. By continuing to browse this repository, you give consent for essential cookies to be used. You can read more about our Privacy and Cookie Policy.


Durham e-Theses
You are in:

Extended Boundary Element Method approach for Direct and Accurate Evaluation of Stress Intensity Factors

ALATAWI, IBRAHIM,AWDAH,M (2016) Extended Boundary Element Method approach for Direct and Accurate Evaluation of Stress Intensity Factors. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.

[img]
Preview
PDF - Accepted Version
2040Kb

Abstract

This thesis introduces an alternative method to evaluate Stress Intensity Factors (SIFs) in computational fracture mechanics directly, using the Extended Dual Boundary Element Method (XBEM) for 2D problems. A novel auxiliary equation introduced which enforces displacement continuity at the crack tip to yield a square system. Additionally, the enrichment method has been extended to 3D, so that the J-integral with XBEM and a direct technique are used to evaluate SIFs. This includes a complete description of the formulation of enrichment functions, a substitution of the enriched form of displacement into boundary integral equations, treatment of singular integrals, assembly of system matrices and the introduction of auxiliary equations to solve the system directly. The enrichment approach utilizes the Williams expansions to enrich crack surface elements for accurate evaluation of stress intensity factors. Similar to other enrichment methods, the new approach can yield accurate results on coarse discretisations, and the enrichment increases the 2D problem size by only two degrees of freedom per crack tip. In the case of 3D, the number of the new degrees of freedom depends on the desired number of crack front points where SIFs need to be evaluated. The auxiliary equations required to yield a square system are derived by enforcing continuity of displacement at the crack front. The enrichment approach provides the values of singular coefficients KI, KII and KIII directly in the solution vector; without any need for postprocessing such as the J-integral. Numerical examples are used to compare the accuracy of these directly computed SIFs to the J-integral processing of both conventional and XBEM approximations.

Item Type:Thesis (Doctoral)
Award:Doctor of Philosophy
Keywords:Extended Boundary Element Method; XBEM; Enriched BEM; Fracture Mechanics; Stress Intensity Factors; SIFs
Faculty and Department:Faculty of Science > Engineering and Computing Science, School of (2008-2017)
Thesis Date:2016
Copyright:Copyright of this thesis is held by the author
Deposited On:11 May 2016 10:09

Social bookmarking: del.icio.usConnoteaBibSonomyCiteULikeFacebookTwitter