Abstract
The Fractal Finite Element Method for calculating 2D stress intensity factors is modified by making the similarity ratio in the construction of the fractal mesh a variable. A parametric study is then carried out to examine the effects of the similarity ratio, the number of transformation terms, reduced integration and the initial crack opening angle on the quality of the numerical solutions. It is concluded that a large similarity ratio should be used to create the fractal mesh, and that reduced integration and a small initial crack opening angle may be used without producing significant errors in the solutions.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 631-642 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 28 2003 |
Keywords
- Fractal finite elements
- Parametric study
- Similarity ratio
- Stress intensity factor