Three dimensional fracture mechanics computations using tetrahedral finite elements

With the development of CAD packages which can create complicated 3-D models and mesh them with tetrahedral elements with relative ease, the application of finite element techniques in mechanical design has reached unprecedented proportions. However, the extension of these techniques to fracture mechanics studies is hindered by the unavailability of a general method to obtain fracture mechanics singularity strength (J, K1, etc.) for tetrahedral meshes. An approach to obtain these parameters along a 3-D crack front using tetrahedral elements is presented here. The method is then validated on well-known crack geometries using tetrahedral meshes generated from commercially-available CAD-FEA packages or both elastic and elastic-plastic problems.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1999

Author dc:creator

• Rajaram, Harish, 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David M. Parks.

• Mechanical Engineering

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28214

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28214