4.

1 Abaqus

43

Figure 4.4: Wall dimensions in m.

Figure 4.5: Wall boundary conditions and load applied.

For the present analysis, only 1/4 of the plate was modeled due to symmetry, Figure 4.9.


The plate is made of steel E = 210 109 P a; = 0.3 with finite width W = 1000mm and
a central crack with a length of 2a = 100mm. The remote load ( = 1P a) is in mode I.
In Figure 4.10, the 1/4 of plate crack zone is highlighted in red, with no restrictions for
y-direction displacements. Loads and boundary conditions are also illustrated in this figure.
16 FEAs were realized in Abaqus with diferent refinements in the crack zone of the plates
shell mesh, Figure 4.11. Abaqus determines the J-Integral value from which the stress intensity
factor is calculated afterwards by the following expression, [18]

KI =

EJ

(4.3)

The Abaqus designation for the standard linear shell element used is CPS4R: A 4-node
bilinear plane stress quadrilateral, reduced integration, hourglass control, [71]. The analysis
is implicit.