New crack elements for boundary element analysis of elastostatics considering arbitrary stress singularities

AbstractNew crack elements are proposed for fracture mechanics analysis of two- and three-dimensional elastostatics by the boundary element method (BEM). In the proposed crack elements, arbitrary singularities of the stress or the traction near the crack front can be taken into account, and the behavior of displacements near the crack front can be simulated in a reasonable manner. Three different kinds of interpolation functions are used for modeling the boundary element geometry and the traction and displacement variations near the crack front, so the nodal points of the crack element are located at their regular positions. An attempt is made to apply the proposed crack elements to the stress-intensity-factor computation of some typical surface-crack problems. Some interesting features inherent to the surface-crack problem are revealed through comparison of the results obtained with other solutions available in the literature