Elastic Crack Growth in Finite Elements With Minimal Remeshing-Belytschko and Black-1999

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING
Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 45, 601620 (1999)
ELASTIC CRACK GROWTH IN FINITE ELEMENTS

WITH MINIMAL REMESHING
T. BELYTSCHKO; AND T. BLACK

Departments of Mechanical and Civil Engineering; Northwestern University; 2145 Sheridan Road;
Evanston; IL 60208; U.S.A.
SUMMARY
A minimal remeshing nite element method for crack growth is presented. Discontinuous enrichment functions
are added to the nite element approximation to account for the presence of the crack. This method allows
the crack to be arbitrarily aligned within the mesh. For severely curved cracks, remeshing may be needed
but only away from the crack tip where remeshing is much easier. Results are presented for a wide range of
two-dimensional crack problems showing excellent accuracy. Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS: nite elements; fracture; partition-of-unity
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper describes a method whereby cracks and crack growth can be modelled by nite elements
with no remeshing. By this method, a crack arbitrarily aligned within the mesh can be represented
by means of enrichment functions. Stress intensity factors for the crack are computed with errors
less than 1 per cent.
The essential idea in this method is to add enrichment functions to the approximation which
contains a discontinuous displacement eld. The same span of functions developed in Fleming
et al. [4] for the enrichment of the element-free Galerkin method is used. The method exploits the
partition of unity property of nite elements which was noted by Melenk and Babuska [1], and
Duarte and Oden [2], namely that the sum of the shape functions must be unity. This property
has long been known, since it corresponds to the ability of the shape functions to reproduce a
constant, that is to represent translation, which is crucial for convergence.
The method can solve most crack growth problems without any remeshing. However, for
severely curved cracks, some remeshing near the crack root may be necessary. Since remesh-
ing near the crack root is much easier than remeshing at the crack tip (it may only need to be
Correspondence to: T. Belytschko, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road,
Evanston, IL 60208-3111, U.S.A. E-mail: t-belytschko@nwu.edu
Walter P. Murphy, Professor of Computational Mechanics
Research Assistant, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
Contract=grant sponsor: Oce of Naval Research

Contract=grant sponsor: Army Research Oce
CCC 00295981/99/17060120$17.50 Received 10 July 1998

Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
602 T. BELYTSCHKO AND T. BLACK
done in a few steps of a crack growth simulation), the method can be said to require minimal
remeshing.
The competition aorded by alternative methods is substantial. These problems can be solved
by
1. mesh-free methods such as the element-free Galerkin method [35],
2. nite element methods with continual remeshing [6] and
3. boundary element methods.
However, this method oers unique advantages:
1. it is a nite element method and can exploit the large body of nite element technology and
software,
2. in contrast to boundary elements, it is readily applicable to non-linear problems and
3. in contrast to nite elements with continuous remeshing, it does not require as many projec-
tions between dierent meshes.
Thus, it is a very attractive method.
It is also worthwhile to contrast this with other embedded nite element crack methods such as
Oliver [7]. In the aforementioned, the crack is represented as a discontinuity in the displacements
within the element. However, crack tips cannot be represented inside an element and the essential
singularity of the elds is absent. Incidentally, a combination of these techniques with the present
technique may be promising.
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews the governing equations, Section 3 describes
the method, examples are presented in Section 4, conclusions and extensions of the method are
discussed in Section 5, and the appendix includes a review of the growth law used in this paper
and a discussion of interaction integrals for the computation of stress intensity factors.
2. GOVERNING EQUATIONS
We consider small displacement elastostatics, which is governed by the equation of equilibrium:
b + b=0 in
(1)
where
b = C : U; U = s u (2)
In the above equations,

R2 is the domain of the body, b is the Cauchy stress tensor, U is the
small strain tensor, b is the body force, C is the material moduli tensor, u is the displacement,
is the gradient operator, and s is the symmetric gradient operator. The essential and natural
boundary conditions are
u = u on u; n b = t on t (3)
where = u t is the boundary of

with unit normal vector n, and u and t are prescribed
displacements and tractions, respectively. The crack faces considered are traction-free.
Prior to the description of our method, we recall some basics concerning asymptotic elds in
fracture mechanics. The computation of stress intensity factors and crack growth laws in two
Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 45, 601620 (1999)
ELASTIC CRACK GROWTH IN FINITE ELEMENTS 603
dimensions are described in the appendix. The near tip displacement elds for combined Modes I
and II loading are
KI p
u(x; y) = r=2 cos(=2)[ 1 + 2 sin2 (=2)]
2
KII p
+ r=2 sin(=2)[ + 1 + 2 cos2 (=2)] (4)
2
KI p
v (x; y) = r=2 sin(=2)[ + 1 2 cos2 (=2)]
2
KII p
r=2 cos(=2)[ 1 2 sin2 (=2)] (5)
2
where is the Kolosov constant

3 4; plane strain
= 3
; plane stress
1+
where r and are polar co-ordinates with origin at the crack tip and x1 -axis oriented into the body
and parallel to the crack faces. The displacement eld is contained in the span of the following
four functions:

4

{ I (r; )}i=1 r cos ; r sin ; r sin sin(); r cos sin() (6)
2 2 2 2
These functions will be used to enrich the trial space by explicitly including these functions near
the crack tip and along the faces. This is accomplished by using extra degrees of freedom at
selected nodes.
3. FORMULATION
The method consists of an enrichment of the nite element partition of unity near the crack tip
with functions (6) whose span include the two-dimensional plane strain asymptotic crack tip elds.
Without enrichment, the FEM requires considerable mesh renement near the tip and the nite
element mesh needs to conform to the geometry of the crack faces. Selected nodes around the
crack have extra degrees of freedom associated with the enriching functions. The approximation
takes the form of an extrinsic enrichment and can be written as
!
h Pn nP
E (I )
u (x) = NI (x) uI + ajI j (r; ) (7a)
I =1 j=1
!
h P
n nP
E (I )
v (x) = NI (x) vI + bjI j (r; ) (7b)
I =1 j=1
where (r; ) is a polar co-ordinate system with origin at the crack tip and the x1 -axis parallel
to the last segment and N1 (x) are the standard nite element shape functions. The enrichment
Figure 1. Two enriching strategies near the crack: (a) crack passes through the cells and nodes surrounding the whole
crack are enriched; and (b) the mesh conforms to part of the crack and enrichment is only near the crack tip including the
last mesh conforming node
coecients aiI and biI are associated with nodes and nE (I ) is the number of coecients for node I ;
for this case nE (I ) = 4 at the enriched nodes. In this paper, nE (I ) is set prior to running the
program: it is chosen to be 4 for all nodes around the crack tip and zero at all other nodes. The
four enrichment functions in equation (6) are used. Thus the enrichment is active only on a set
of nodes around the crack.
Two enriching methods are represented in Figure 1. The rst method passes the crack through
the cells and enriches all nodes in a small region (a tube) surrounding the crack. The enriching
functions allow for the proper jump in eld variables along the crack. The second method uses a
mesh conforming to a portion of the crack, that is a part of the crack is explicitly modelled by
the mesh. Only nodes about the crack tip, including the portion of the crack that is not explicitly
modelled, are enriched. Near the crack tip the enriching functions allow for the proper jump in
eld variables while away from the tip the mesh is adjusted so that element edges conform to the
crack.
The enrichment functions (6) are discontinuous along the ray, = , emanating from the
crack tip to account for the presence of the crack. We want to show that using functions with
a jump discontinuity along the crack produce a solution with zero traction along the crack faces.
We consider the general problem and then observe how our discrete approximation satises the
traction condition along the crack. Consider the case where approximations (7) are discontinuous
along the curve c . We still insist that our approximation satises the principle of virtual work
with no body force
Z Z
s v : b d
= v t d v (8)

t
where t is the given traction on t . We use the divergence theorem on the rst integral in (8) to
obtain
Z Z Z Z
v b d
v ( t bn) d + v bn d + v b n d = 0 v (9)

c t c+ c
If v is chosen to be zero on t c c+ then

Z
v b d
= 0

c
If v is chosen next to be non-zero only on t then

Z
v ( t b n) d = 0
t
So we are left with the integrals along the crack faces

Z Z
v bn d + v bn d = 0 (10)
c+ c
By choosing v to be continuous and non-zero on c+ and zero on c we obtain from (10)

Z
v bn d = 0
c+
Consequently, b n = 0 along c+ . Similarly, b n = 0 along c . Therefore, approximations with a

jump discontinuity along the crack satisfy b n = 0 along the crack faces. The numerical approxi-
mation using (7) satises the traction free condition in an averaged sense. Substituting (7) into
(10) and using summation notation gives uIi ; aIj
Z Z
(uIi NI + aIj NI j )ti d + (uIi NI + aIj NI j )ti d = 0 (11)
c+ c
where ti (b n)i . Therefore, the following conditions holds for each i; j; I :

Z Z
NI j ti d + NI j ti d = 0 (12)
c+ c
Z Z
NI ti d + NI ti d = 0 (13)
c+ c
The crack is modelled as a series of straight-line segments connecting vertices. The vertices
are numbered beginning at the crack tip, which is (x1 ; y1 ) = (xtip ; ytip ). As the crack grows, a
new crack segment is added to the model. An initially straight crack may curve and the crack
representation develops kinks. The method is able to treat cracks which are not straight by using
a procedure similar to [4]. In this procedure, we align the discontinuity in the enriching functions
with the crack by a sequence of mappings that rotate each section of the discontinuity onto the
crack model.
The enrichment functions are constructed through a sequence of maps; one map is used for
each straight-line segment of the crack, beginning with the segment at the crack tip. We rst
describe the modication of the enrichment functions for the segment adjacent to the crack tip
segment.
The crucial step in the modication of the enrichment functions is to change the angle in
equation (6). This is done as follows. Given a point (x; y), we dene an angle (x; y) in terms of
the angle of the segment R (see Figure 2) and the sampling point (x; y) by

Ca ( R ); R
= (14)
Cb ( R ); R
=2
Ca (15)
3=2 R
=2
Cb (16)
R =2
Then we map the co-ordinates of the sampling point (x; y) to co-ordinates in the crack tip frame
(x ; y ) by
(x; y) 7 (x ; y ) (l r cos ();

r sin ())
(17)
where
q
l (x2 xtip ) 2 + (y2 ytip ) 2
p
r (x2 x) 2 + (y2 y) 2
The variables r and in the enrichment functions (6) are given by
p
r = (x ) 2 + (y ) 2 (18)

1 y
= tan (19)
x
Figure 2. Mapping used for kinked cracks: (a) initial geometry for the modication of the enrichment functions for the
segment adjacent to the crack tip segment; (b) the mapped point (x ; y ) used to determine r and in the enriching
functions (6)
At step n in the mapping sequence the algorithm is as follows (see Figure 3). The angle
y) is computed using (14) where the angles R and (x; y) are determined from the current
(x;
conguration. The new enrichment function variables are given by (17) with
q
l (xn xtip ) 2 + (yn ytip ) 2
p
r (xn x) 2 + (yn y) 2
is less than the length of the next segment in the mapped co-ordinates
If r cos ()
p
(xn+1 xn ) 2 + (yn+1 yn ) 2 , then the new co-ordinates (17) are used to dene r and in the
enriching functions i (r; ); i = 1; 4, by (18). Otherwise, the co-ordinates of the remaining crack
vertices are rotated using (17) and a new mapping is constructed as just described.
Figure 3. Mapping used for kinked cracks: (a) the geometric conguration at step n in the mapping sequence (17). The
previous crack segments are aligned with the tip segment and a new mapping is needed to compute the enriching functions
at (x; y); and (b) the mapped point (x ; y ) used to determine r and in the enriching functions (6)
The mapping can be imagined as a virtual rotation of the crack to align it with the leading
crack segment leaving the eld xed on the perpendicular to the leading crack segment through
the rotation point. This sequence of mappings leaves the length of the crack invariant. For longer
cracks, a second method is described that will generally change the eective length of the crack
in the mapped conguration.
For longer cracks it may be necessary to approximate this sequence of maps by a single map.
Given the point (x; y), to use mapping (17) it is necessary to nd a point on the discontinuity
ray from the tip and the corresponding crack segment to be rotated about this point. The crack
segment is the last segment from the tip with negative projected vector xrel on the discontinuity
ray (x1 -axis) (see Figure 4). Given this segment, the rotation point (xrot ; yrot ) is the intersection
of the extended crack segment with the discontinuity ray. The mapping is constructed using this
data as described in the previous paragraphs. The crack length is changed by the projections and
rotations onto the discontinuity ray.
It is necessary to obtain spatial derivatives of the enriching functions (6) in the original global
co-ordinate system. At each stage of the mapping sequence, the derivatives with respect to old
and new co-ordinates are related by the chain rule
@ @
@xold cos cos Ck sin sin sin cos + Ck cos sin @xnew
@ = @ (20)
cos sin + Ck sin cos sin sin Ck cos cos
@yold @ynew
Figure 4. Geometry for the approximate kink map. The crack is eectively shortened using this method
where Ck = Ca or Cb depending on and R as in (14). Then the desired derivatives are obtained
by multiplying in succession the matrices of each map used in nding the elds.
4. EXAMPLES
Several problems are solved to illustrate the eectiveness of the enrichment method in fracture
problems. Solutions are given for single- and mixed-mode static problems and for quasi-static crack
growth. Basics related to fracture parameters and their computation and crack growth laws in two
dimensions are discussed in the appendix. Stress intensity factors are computed with the domain
form of interaction integrals. The direction of crack growth is determined from the maximum
circumferential (hoop) stress criterion.
4.1. Tensile and shear edge cracks
A rectangular plate with an edge crack is shown in Figure 5 and loaded rst in tension and
then in shear with plane strain conditions. The geometric parameters are chosen to be a=W = 05;
h=W = 160=70 and W = 70 in. Four meshes with two dierent enrichment zones near the crack
are considered. Two of the four meshes consist of nodes evenly spaced in the x-direction and in the
y-direction and are denoted even1 (12 24 nodes) and even2 (24 48 nodes). The crack passes
through the centre of the elements in these two meshes and the enrichment encloses the crack
as shown in Figure 1(a). The other two meshes conform to a portion of the crack as is typical
in FEM analysis where the mesh conforms to all of the crack. These two meshes are denoted
conform1 (280 nodes) and conform2 (1135 nodes). The enrichment zones are near the crack tip
only as shown in Figure 1(b). Stress intensity factors are computed on four dierent domains
using the domain form of the interaction integrals. The weighting function q(x) is dened using
Figure 5. Geometric parameters for edge crack, shown here with shear loading
Table I. Normalized KI values using smaller enrichment zone

Domain even1 even2 conform1 conform2
number 16 enriched 28 enriched 12 enriched 21 enriched
dom1 09768 09932 09277 09953
dom2 09785 09882 09869 09938
dom3 09730 09883 09800 09943
dom4 09729 09883 09798 09942
the nite element structure. Four boxes centred at the crack tip are considered
dom1 : 05 05 05 05
dom2 : 10 10 10 10
dom3 : 20 20 20 20
dom4 : 25 25 25 25
and for each box q(x) = 1 over the cells completely inside the box and q(x) ramps to 0 over the
cells containing the boundary of the box using the nite element shape functions for those cells.
4.1.1. Tensile edge crack. The plate is loaded in tension at the top with = 10 psi and essential
boundary conditions are applied to the bottom of the plate. The computed mode I stress intensity
factors are compared with a nite geometry corrected value KI = C a where the correction
is given by Ewalds and Wanhill [8], C = 112 0231(a=W ) + 1055(a=W 2 ) 2172(a=W )3 +
3039(a=W )4 .
The normalized KI values for each of the four meshes with the smaller enrichment zone are
shown in Table I, and in Table II with the larger enrichment zone.
There is excellent agreement with the corrected KI value.
Table II. Normalized KI values using larger enrichment zone

dom1 09960 10003 09332 09981
dom2 09974 09986 09953 09978
dom3 09958 09975 09898 09988
dom4 09942 09975 09899 09985
Table III. Normalized KI values using smaller enrichment zone

dom1 09738 09940 09231 09959
dom2 09755 09886 09844 09942
dom3 09690 09885 09763 09945
dom4 09688 09885 09759 09945
Table IV. Normalized KI values using larger enrichment zone

dom1 09945 10012 09291 09985
dom2 09958 09995 09934 09982
dom3 09943 09982 09874 09993
dom4 09924 09982 09873 09989
4.1.2. Shear edge crack. The plate is clamped on the bottom and loaded by a shear traction
= 10 psi on the top. The reference mixed mode stress intensity factors are [9],

KI = 340 psi in:

KII = 455 psi in:
The normalized computed KI values with the smaller zone are shown in Table III, and with in
Table IV the larger zone.
The normalized KII values with the smaller zone are shown in Table V, and with in Table VI
the larger zone on each of the four meshes. Again, the results are in good agreement with the
reference solution.
4.2. Centre and centre curved cracks
A centre straight crack in a panel is considered to demonstrate how to enrich in multiple

regions of the domain and a centre curved crack is considered to show the eectiveness of the
kink mapping (17). The parameters for each problem are the elastic modulus E = 3 107 psi,
Table V. Normalized KII values using smaller enrichment zone

dom1 09832 10009 09937 09936
dom2 09968 09949 09979 09929
dom3 09915 09956 09888 09952
dom4 09921 09957 09892 09953
Table VI. Normalized KII values using larger enrichment zone

dom1 09921 09981 09971 09949
dom2 09974 09972 10008 09947
dom3 09968 09976 09927 09965
dom4 09960 09977 09926 09963
Figure 6. Geometric parameters for centre cracks, shown here for the centre curved crack
Poissons ratio = 025; = 10 psi, and plane strain conditions are assumed (Figure 6). The crack
is situated at y = 00 from x = 2020.
4.2.1. Centre crack. The purpose of this example is to describe a computational strategy for
problems containing multiple crack tips. The full geometry, [50; 50] [100; 100], is modelled
by meshing the crack from x = 1010 and using disjoint enrichment zones at each tip up to
and including a small portion of the conforming part of the mesh. Two meshes, mesh1 consists of
402 nodes with 25 enriched nodes at each tip and mesh2 consists of 1606 nodes with 64 enriched
nodes at each tip, are used for the computations. The reference solution for this geometry is [8],
KI = 27641, where a nite geometry correction is used.
Table VII. Normalized KI values for Mesh1

SIFs dom1 dom2 dom3 dom4
Intq 09924 09984 10053 10024
Intq2 10551 09946 10019 09964
Jdomq 09894 09966 10102 09980
Jdomq2 10222 09940 10007 09978
Table VIII. Normalized KI values for Mesh2

SIFs dom1 dom2 dom3 dom4
Intq 10063 10043 10051 10053
Intq2 10135 10029 10116 10033
Jdomq 10045 10042 10040 10039
Jdomq2 10062 10025 10070 10037
The sensitivity of the interaction domain integral calculations to domain size are checked by
using a second weighting function, q2 (x), on four domains centered at the crack tip
dom1: 05 05 05 05
dom2: 10 10 10 10
dom3: 15 15 15 15
dom4: 20 20 20 20
The weight q2 (x) is 1 at the tip and ramps linearly to 0 at the edges of the boxes. The integration
cells align for the q weight function but not for the q2 weight. Therefore, there is larger integration
error with the q2 weight function. The idea is that the integration error in the calculation of the
integrals is still acceptable since, the weighting function q2 is close to 0 near the edges of the
domain box where the integration error is largest. Additionally, KI values are computed with
the domain form of the J integral, [10].
The normalized KI values using weight functions q and q2 with domain forms of the interaction
and J integrals are shown in Tables VII and VIII.
Contours of the normal stress yy are shown in Figure 7.
4.2.2. Centre curved crack. The centre curved crack, shown in Figure 6, is modelled by sym-
metry with domain [00; 100] [100; 100]. The stress intensity factors for the innite body,
[11], are given by
" #
2 2
1=2 (1 sin (=2) cos (=2)) cos(=2)
KI = (R sin()) + cos(3=2)
2 1 + sin2 (=2)
" #
2 2
1=2 (1 sin (=2) cos (=2)) sin(=2)
KII = (R sin()) + sin(3=2)
2 1 + sin2 (=2)
Figure 7. Centre crack yy stress contours
Figure 8. Description of the mesh near the curved crack, exaggerated, which is modelled by symmetry. The crack is
partially opened along the symmetry boundary to facilitate the application of essential boundary conditions. There the
mesh is aligned with the crack opening. The rest of the crack is discretely modelled as an internal boundary dened by
the enriching functions (6)
where R is the radius of the circular arc and 2 is the subtended angle of the arc. Figure 8 shows the
discrete model of the crack near the symmetry boundary. The nodes along the symmetry boundary
are not enriched to facilitate the application of essential boundary conditions. The enrichment is
included along only part of the crack near the crack tip. The crack is partially opened along the
remainder of its length as shown. Nodes around the crack tip, including a small part of the crack
opening, are enriched with (6).
Figure 9. Initial geometry for the double cantilever beam specimen
Figure 10. Crack path through the mesh of 1675 nodes for the double cantilever beam specimen with initial perturbation
angle of 571 and step size 005 in. The initial specimen is shown followed by the crack path after 12 and then 24 steps
The crack is a circular arc centred at (00; 375) with radius R = 425. The arc extends from
(00; 05) on the symmetry boundary to (20; 00). The subtended angle is = 280725 . The
stress intensity factors for the innite body with this crack geometry are KI = 20146 and
KII = 11116. The mesh consists of 1037 nodes with 54 enriched nodes near the crack tip and
conforms to the circular crack from (00; 05) to (059300; 045842). Three domains are used
for the interaction integrals using the weight function q(x)
dom1: 04 04 04 04
dom2: 05 05 05 05
dom3: 08 08 08 08
Figure 11. Crack paths for double cantilever beam with comparison of dierent initial perturbation angles
Table IX. Normalized KI values

SIFs dom1 dom2 dom3
Kink 11 10117 10107 10227
Kink 21 10119 10113 10227
No map 08240 08225 08356
Table X. Normalized KII values

SIFs dom1 dom2 dom3
Kink 11 10056 10141 10567
Kink 21 10058 10148 10567
No map 08089 08101 08241
The normalized KI and KII values using the kink mapping are compared with results without
the mapping. We consider two models of the crack: 10 straight-line segments with 11 vertices
(Kink 11) and 20 straight-line segments with 21 vertices (Kink 21), as shown in Tables IX and X.
The stress intensity factors exceed the closed-form results for the innite body. At this level
of discretization, there was little, if any, improvement with increased crack discretization. As
the domains increase in size, more of the curvature of the crack is involved in the numerical
calculation of the stress intensity factors leading to error in the computed values. The mapping of
the enrichment functions is denitely needed to capture the correct behaviour near the crack.
4.3. Double cantilever beam
In this example, a crack is grown quasi-statically in a double cantilever beam specimen. The
geometry is shown in Figure 9, with L = 118 in:; h = 394 in:; a = 394 in: and P = 197 lbs. Plane
stress conditions are assumed with elastic modulus E = 3 107 psi and Poissons ratio = 03. The
crack is given a small perturbation at the tip of length 03 in with initial angle d of 00; 143; 286,
and 571 as shown in Figure 9. Figure 10 shows the evolution of the crack path through the
mesh consisting of 1675 nodes for an initial perturbation angle of 571 . The crack advances a
length 005 in: at each step. The stress intensity factors are computed using the domain form of
the interaction integrals in a square domain with side lengths 12 in: centred at the crack tip. The
direction of propagation is determined using equation (23). Figure 11 shows the crack paths for
each of the initial perturbation angles and step sizes of 01 and 005 in: At each step, KII should
be monitored. If KII is too large in comparison with KI , then the step size should be shortened
and the solution computed again.
5. CONCLUSIONS
A method has been presented for enriching nite element approximations so that crack problems
can be solved with minimal remeshing. The nite element mesh in most cases need not conform to
the shape of the crack. Thus crack growth problems can be solved with no or very little remeshing.
The key feature of this method is the use of test and trial functions which are discontinuous.
This discontinuity is placed along the path of the crack, so that the crack is not treated by the
standard nite element shape functions. The discontinuous functions are added to the test and trial
functions by using the original nite elements to generate a partition of unity.
The results presented show excellent accuracy for a range of two-dimensional problems. In all
cases, stress intensity factors agreed with analytic solutions to about 1 per cent.
The extension to problems with material non-linearities should pose only minor diculties. The
crack representation is embedded in the approximation, although the square root character of the
near tip eld was embedded in the approximation, enrichment with more general elds is certainly
conceivable.
Extension to three dimensions also seems feasible. There are new dimensions of diculty in
enrichment of three-dimensional crack elds in that the enrichment usually depends on a unique
denition of a normal to the crack front, which becomes ambiguous away from the crack front
near sharp corners, see [12]. However, with some restrictions these diculties are surmountable.
Thus, this is a promising method in a large class of crack growth problems.
APPENDIX
We brie y review the crack growth law we used to specify the direction of crack growth. Among
the criteria for determining the growth direction are: (1) the maximum energy release rate criterion
[13] (2) the maximum circumferential (hoop) stress criterion or the maximum principal stress
criterion [14], and (3) the minimum strain energy density criterion [15]. In this paper we use
the maximum circumferential stress criterion, which is identical to the maximum energy release
criterion for problems governed by equation (1). The maximum circumferential stress criterion
states that the crack will propagate from its tip in a direction c so that the circumferential stress
is maximum. The circumferential stress in the direction of crack propagation is a principal
stress. Therefore, the critical angle c dening the radial direction of propagation can be determined
by setting the shear stress associated with (4) and (5) to zero

1 1 1
r = cos(=2) KI sin() + KII (3cos () 1) = 0 (22)
2r 2 2
This leads to the equation dening the angle of crack propagation in the tip co-ordinate system c
KI sin(c ) + KII (3cos (c ) 1) = 0
Solving this equation gives

p
c = 2arctan 14 (KI =KII (KI =KII ) 2 + 8) (23)
The stress intensity factors are computed using domain forms of the interaction integrals [9; 16].
For completeness these are discussed here. Co-ordinates are crack tip co-ordinates with the x1 -axis
parallel to the crack faces. For general mixed mode problems we have the following relationship
between the value of the J integral and the stress intensity factors
K2 K2
J = I + II (24)
E E
where E is dened in terms of material parameters E (Youngs modulus) and (poissons
ratio) as

E; plane stress

E =
E ; plane strain
1 2
Two states of a cracked body are considered. State 1 (ij(1) ; ij(1) ; ui(1) ) corresponds to the actual state
and state 2 (ij(2) ; ij(2) ; ui(2) ) is an auxiliary state which will be chosen as the asymptotic elds for
modes I and II. The J integral for the sum of the two states is
Z 1 2

(1+2) 1 (1) (2) (1) (2) (1) (2) @(ui + ui )
J = ( + ij )(ij + ij )1j (ij + ij ) nj d
2 ij @x1
Expanding and rearranging terms gives
J (1+2) = J (1) + J (2) + M (1; 2) (25)
where M (1; 2) is called the interaction integral for states 1 and 2

Z 2 1

(1; 2) (1; 2) (1) @ui (2) @ui
M = W 1j ij ij nj d (26)
@x1 @x1
and W (1; 2) is the interaction strain energy
W (1; 2) = ij(1) ij(2) = ij(2) ij(1)
Figure 12. Derivation of the domain form of the interaction integral used in computation of the stress intensity factors
Writing equation (24) for the combined states gives after rearranging terms
2
J (1+2) = J (1) + J (2) + (K (1) K (2) + KII(1) KII(2) ) (27)
E I I
Equating (25) and (27) leads to the following equation:
2
M (1; 2) = (KI(1) KI(2) + KII(1) KII(2) ) (28)
E
Choosing state 2 as Mode I asymptotic elds with KI(2) = 1 and KII(2) = 0 gives mode I stress
intensity factor for state 1 in terms of the interaction integral
E (1; Mode
KI(1) = M I)
(29)
2
Then choosing state 2 as mode II asymptotic elds with KI(2) = 0 and KII(2) = 1 gives mode II stress
intensity factor for state 1
E (1; Mode
KII(1) = M II)
(30)
2
The contour integral dening M (1; 2) is converted into an area integral by multiplying the inte-
grand by a bounded weighting function q(x) that is 1 on an open set containing the crack tip and
vanishes on an outer prescribed contour 0 . Then for each contour (see Figure 12) in this open
set where q(x) = 1 and assuming the crack faces are stress free and straight in the interior of the
region A bounded by the prescribed contour 0 , the interaction integral may be written as
Z
@u2 @u1
M (1; 2) = W (1; 2) 1j ij(1) i ij(2) i qmj d (31)
C @x1 @x1
where C = + C+ + C + 0 and m is the outward unit normal to the contour C. Now using the
divergence theorem and passing to the limit as the contour is shrunk to the crack tip, which is
justied by the Dominated Convergence Theorem, gives the following equation for the interaction
integral in domain form:
Z 2 1

(1; 2) (1) @ui (2) @ui (1; 2) @q
M = ij ij W 1j dA (32)
A @x1 @x1 @xj
The condition that the weighting function is 1 on an open set containing the crack tip is easily
relaxed to be just = 1 at the tip.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The support of the Oce of Naval Research and the Army Research Oce is gratefully acknowl-
edged.
REFERENCES
1. Melenk JM, Babuska I. The partition of unity nite element method: basic theory and applications. Computer Methods
in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 1996;39:289314.
2. Durate C, Oden J. hp cloudsa meshless method to solve boundary-value problems. Technical Report, TICAM, 1995.
3. Belytschko T, Lu YY, Gu L. Element-free Galerkin methods. International Journal of Numerical Methods in
Engineering 1994;37:229256.
4. Fleming M, Chu YA, Moran B, Belytschko T. Enriched element-free Galerkin methods for singular elds. International
Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 1997;40:14831504.
5. Belytschko T, Krongauz Y, Organ D, Fleming M, Krysl P. Meshless methods: an overview and recent developments.
Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 1996;139:3 47.
6. Swenson D, Ingraea A. Modeling mixed-mode dynamic crack propagation using nite elements: theory and
applications. Computational Mechanics 1988;3:381397.
7. Oliver J. Continuum modelling of strong discontinuities in solid mechanics using damage models. Computational
Mechanics 1995;17:49 61.
8. Ewalds H, Wanhill R. Fracture Mechanics; Edward Arnold: New York, 1989.
9. Yau J, Wang S, Corten H. A mixed-mode crack analysis of isotropic solids using conservation laws of elasticity.
Journal of Applied Mechanics 1980;47:335341.
10. Moran B, Shih C. Crack tip and associated domain integrals from momentum and energy balance. Engineering Fracture
Mechanics 1987;127.
11. Gdoutos E. Fracture Mechanics; Kluwer Academics Publishers: Boston, 1993.
12. Black T. Mesh-free applications to fracture mechanics and an analysis of the corrected derivative method. Ph.D. Thesis,
Northwestern University, 1998.
13. Nuismer RJ. An energy release rate criterion for mixed mode fracture. International Journal of Fracture 1975;11:
245250.
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Elastic Crack Growth in Finite Elements With Minimal Remeshing-Belytschko and Black-1999

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 45, 601620 (1999)

ELASTIC CRACK GROWTH IN FINITE ELEMENTS

T. BELYTSCHKO; AND T. BLACK

Contract=grant sponsor: Oce of Naval Research

CCC 00295981/99/17060120$17.50 Received 10 July 1998

We consider small displacement elastostatics, which is governed by the equation of equilibrium:

In the above equations,

where = u t is the boundary of

If v is chosen to be zero on t c c+ then

If v is chosen next to be non-zero only on t then

So we are left with the integrals along the crack faces

By choosing v to be continuous and non-zero on c+ and zero on c we obtain from (10)

Consequently, b n = 0 along c+ . Similarly, b n = 0 along c . Therefore, approximations with a

where ti (b n)i . Therefore, the following conditions holds for each i; j; I :

(x; y) 7 (x ; y ) (l r cos ();

4.1. Tensile and shear edge cracks

Table I. Normalized KI values using smaller enrichment zone

Table II. Normalized KI values using larger enrichment zone

Table III. Normalized KI values using smaller enrichment zone

Table IV. Normalized KI values using larger enrichment zone

4.2. Centre and centre curved cracks

A centre straight crack in a panel is considered to demonstrate how to enrich in multiple

Table V. Normalized KII values using smaller enrichment zone

Table VI. Normalized KII values using larger enrichment zone

Table VII. Normalized KI values for Mesh1

Table VIII. Normalized KI values for Mesh2

Figure 7. Centre crack yy stress contours

Figure 9. Initial geometry for the double cantilever beam specimen

Table IX. Normalized KI values

Table X. Normalized KII values

4.3. Double cantilever beam

KI sin(c ) + KII (3cos (c ) 1) = 0

Solving this equation gives

J (1+2) = J (1) + J (2) + M (1; 2) (25)

where M (1; 2) is called the interaction integral for states 1 and 2

and W (1; 2) is the interaction strain energy

W (1; 2) = ij(1) ij(2) = ij(2) ij(1)

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Contract=grant sponsor: Oce of Naval Research

(x; y) 7 (x ; y ) (l r cos ();

Figure 7. Centre crack yy stress contours

KI sin(c ) + KII (3cos (c ) 1) = 0

W (1; 2) = ij(1) ij(2) = ij(2) ij(1)