Simulation Implementation on the Direction Prediction of Crack Propagation Based on the First Principal Stress

Abstract

The study attempts to present a new finite element method to implement the direction prediction of crack extension for 2D and 3D cracks based on the maximum tensile stress (MTS) criterion by identifying the first principal stress direction. Especially in the 3D crack propagation, this paper gave a detailed and innovative research method to overcome the challenge of direction prediction on crack extension. The maximum principal stress of the node of crack tip and its neighboring nodes were calculated to determine the increment and the direction of crack tip respectively. Some examples of complex crack propagation were performed under a variety of mixed fracture modes based on linear elastic analysis by ANSYS software. A reasonable evaluation was executed and the advantages of this method were analyzed in detail.