Stochastic Fracture Analysis Using Scaled Boundary Finite Element Methods Accelerated by Proper Orthogonal Decomposition and Radial Basis Functions

Abstract

This paper presents a stochastic analysis method for linear elastic fracture mechanics using the Monte Carlo simulations (MCs) and the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and radial basis functions (RBF). The semianalytical solutions obtained by the SBFEM enable us to capture the stress intensity factors (SIFs) easily and accurately. The adoption of POD and RBF significantly reduces the model order and increases computation efficiency, while maintaining the versatility and accuracy of MCs. Numerical examples of cracks in homogeneous and bimaterial plates are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed method, where the crack inclination angles are set as uncertain variables. It is also found that the larger the scale of the problem, the more advantageous the proposed method is.