Crack Paths 2006

definition of cracks

strcuture’s definition 3D-FE-mesh

3D-FE-mesh

ADAPCRACK3D

N E T A D A P T 3 DFE-mesh-adjustments:

Insertion of cracks Meshadaptation

submodel

of the crack

A B A Q U S

Materialdata

Fracture mechanical evaluation:

N E T C R A C K 3 Determination of SIF

Crack growth direction

Crack growth rate

Lifetime

new crack front co-ordinates

Crack path, crack surface,

stress intensity factors,

crack growth lifetime

Figure 1. Functionality scheme of the program A D A P C R A C K 3 D

growth as well as mesh improvement routines in order to guarantee a sufficient mesh

quality throughout the simulation process. N E T A D A P T 3creDates an FE-model of the

structure containing the crack and a submodel of the crack front vicinity. Both models

are solved by the commercial FE-code A B A Q U S .On the basis of the submodel’s

solution a fracture mechanical evaluation is carried out by the third module

N E T C R A C K 3 DBe.sides the interesting fracture mechanical parameters such as the

crack path or crack surface, stress intensity factors, crack growth lifetime etc. especially

new crack front co-ordinates are calculated in case of stable fatigue crack growth, that

are sent back to the first module in order to close the simulation circle. More details

concerning this program can e.g. be gathered from [1,2].

N U M E R I C ADLE S C R I P T I O NO F C R A C KG R O W T IHN T H R E E

D I M E N S I O NSATLR U C T U R E S

In order to reasonably describe crack growth in three-dimensional structures by means

of a numerical simulation the knowledge of the direction as well as the crack growth