Analysis of Representative Volume Elements with Random Microcracks

The paper presents the computation of effective elastic properties and an analysis of stress intensity factors for representative volume elements (RVE) with randomly distributed microcracks. The RVEs are subjected to static and dynamic loadings. The microcracks having the same length, randomly distributed, parallel or randomly oriented, are considered. The structures with microcracks are mod-elled by using the boundary element method (BEM). The time dependent problems are solved using the Laplace transform method. In the BEM the boundaries are discretized and it is very easy to modify positions and directions of microcracks. The influence of density of microcracks on the effective Young modulus, the effec-tive Poisson ratio, stress intensity factors and speed of the wave travelling through the cracked structure is investigated. The numerically computed Young moduli are compared with the solutions obtained by analytical methods: the non-interacting method, the self-consistent method and the differential method.