Contour integral evaluation, Section 11.4.

2 of the Abaqus Analysis Users Manual

Contour integral evaluation
Abaqus/Standard offers two different ways to evaluate the contour integral. The first approach is based on the conventional finite element method, which typically requires you to conform the mesh to the cracked geometry, to explicitly define the crack front, and to specify the virtual crack extension direction. Detailed focused meshes are generally required, and obtaining accurate contour integral results for a crack in a three-dimensional curved surface can be quite cumbersome. Several contour integral evaluations are possible at each location along a crack. In a finite element model each evaluation can be thought of as the virtual motion of a block of material surrounding the crack tip (in two dimensions) or surrounding each node along the crack line (in three dimensions). Each block is defined by contours, where each contour is a ring of elements completely surrounding the crack tip or the nodes along the crack line from one crack face to the opposite crack face. These rings of elements are defined recursively to surround all previous contours. Abaqus/Standard automatically finds the elements that form each ring from the regions defined as the crack tip or crack line. Each contour provides an evaluation of the contour integral. The possible number of evaluations is the number of such rings of elements. You must specify the number of contours to be used in calculating contour integrals. In addition, you must specify the type of contour integral to be calculated, as described below. By default, Abaqus/Standard calculates the J-integral. You can assign a name to a crack that is used to identify the contour integral values in the data file and in the output database file. The name is also used by Abaqus/CAE to request contour integral output. If you are using the conventional finite element method and do not specify a crack name, by default Abaqus/Standard generates crack numbers that follow the order in which the cracks are defined. If you are using XFEM, you must set the crack name equal to the name assigned to the enriched feature.

Using the divergence theorem, the contour integral can be expanded into an area integral in two dimensions or a volume integral in three dimensions, over a finite domain surrounding the crack. This domain integral method is used to evaluate contour integrals in Abaqus/Standard. The method is quite robust in the sense that accurate contour integral estimates are usually obtained even with quite coarse meshes. The method is robust because the integral is taken over a domain of elements surrounding the crack and because errors in local solution parameters have less effect on the evaluated quantities such as J, the stress intensity factors, and the T-stress.

The J integral can be evaluated numerically along a contour surrounding the crack tip. The advantages of this method are that it can be applied both to linear and nonlinear problems, and path independence (in elastic materials) enables the user to evaluate J at a remote contour, where numerical accuracy is greater.

2.16.2 Stress intensity factor extraction

Product: Abaqus/Standard The stress intensity factors , , and play an important role in linear elastic fracture

mechanics. They characterize the influence of load or deformation on the magnitude of the crack-tip stress and strain fields and measure the propensity for crack propagation or the crack driving forces. Furthermore, the stress intensity can be related to the energy release rate (the Jintegral) for a linear elastic material through

where and is called the pre-logarithmic energy factor matrix .For homogeneous, isotropic materials is diagonal and the above equation simplifies to

where

for plane stress and

for plane strain

Maximum tangential stress criterion

The near-crack-tip stress field for a homogeneous, isotropic linear elastic material is given by

where r and are polar coordinates centered at the crack tip in a plane orthogonal to the crack front. The direction of crack propagation can be obtained using either the condition ; i.e., or

where the crack propagation angle is measured with respect to the crack plane. represents the crack propagation in the straight-ahead direction. if if

while

The J-integral is usually used in rate-independent quasi-static fracture analysis to characterize the energy release associated with crack growth. It can be related to the stress intensity factor if the material response is linear. The J-integral is defined in terms of the energy release rate associated with crack advance. For a virtual crack advance is given by in the plane of a three-dimensional fracture, the energy release rate

where

is a surface element along a vanishing small tubular surface enclosing the crack tip is the outward normal to is given by , and is the local direction of virtual crack

or crack line, extension.

For elastic material behavior W is the elastic strain energy; for elastic-plastic or elastoviscoplastic material behavior W is defined as the elastic strain energy density plus the plastic dissipation, thus representing the strain energy in an equivalent elastic material. Therefore, the J-integral calculated is suitable only for monotonic loading of elastic-plastic materials.