AN EQUIVALENT DOMAIN INTEGRAL METHOD IN THE 2-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF MIXED-MODE CRACK PROBLEMS

An equivalent domain integral (EDI) method for calculating J-integrals for two-dimensional cracked elastic bodies is presented. The details of the method and its implementation are presented for isoparametric elements. The total and product integrals consist of the sum of an area or domain integral and line integrals on the crack faces. The line integrals vanish only when the crack faces are traction free and the loading is either pure mode I or pure mode II or a combination of both with only the square-root singular term in the stress field. The EDI method gave accurate values of the J-integrals for two mode I and two mixed mode problems. Numerical studies showed that domains consisting of one layer of elements are sufficient to obtain accurate J-integral values. Two procedures for separating the individual modes from the domain integrals are presented. The procedure that uses the symmetric and antisymmetric components of the stress and displacement fields to calculate the individual modes gave accurate values of the integrals for all problems analysed. The EDI method when applied to a problem of an interface crack in two different materials showed that the mode I and mode II components are domain dependent while the total integral is not. This behavior is caused by the presence of the oscillatory part of the singularity in bimaterial crack problems. The EDI method, thus, shows behavior similar to the virtual crack closure method for bimaterial problems. © 1990.