Description
We present a method to reduce mesh bias in dynamic fracture simulations using the finite element method with adaptive insertion of extrinsic cohesive zone elements along element boundaries. The geometry of the domain discretization is important in this setting because cracks are only allowed to propagate along element facets and can potentially bias the crack paths. To reduce mesh bias, we consider geometrically unstructured polygonal finite elements in this study. To overcome the problem of limited crack paths, and to significantly improve crack patterns, we propose adaptive refinement [1] and adaptive element splitting [2], increasing the number of potential crack directions at each crack tip. As an additional means of reducing mesh dependency, microstructural randomness is incorporated into the method by means of statistically distributing material properties [3]. Numerical examples are presented which demonstrate improved agreement with experimental results in the literature. REFERENCES [1] Spring, D.W., Leon, S.E., Paulino, G.H. Unstructured adaptive refinement on polygonal meshes for the numerical simulation of dynamic cohesive fracture. International Journal of Fracture (submitted) [2] Leon, S.E., Spring, D.W., Paulino, G.H. Reduction in mesh bias for dynamic fracture using adaptive splitting of polygonal finite elements. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering (accepted). [3] Zhou, F. Molinari, J.F. Dynamic crack propagation with cohesive elements: a method to address mesh dependency. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering. 2004, 59, 1–24.
Recommended Citation
Paulino, G. (2014). Using geometrically, topologically and materially unstructured methods to reduce mesh dependency in dynamic cohesive fracture simulations. In A. Bajaj, P. Zavattieri, M. Koslowski, & T. Siegmund (Eds.). Proceedings of the Society of Engineering Science 51st Annual Technical Meeting, October 1-3, 2014 , West Lafayette: Purdue University Libraries Scholarly Publishing Services, 2014. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/ses2014/mss/issues/22
Using geometrically, topologically and materially unstructured methods to reduce mesh dependency in dynamic cohesive fracture simulations
We present a method to reduce mesh bias in dynamic fracture simulations using the finite element method with adaptive insertion of extrinsic cohesive zone elements along element boundaries. The geometry of the domain discretization is important in this setting because cracks are only allowed to propagate along element facets and can potentially bias the crack paths. To reduce mesh bias, we consider geometrically unstructured polygonal finite elements in this study. To overcome the problem of limited crack paths, and to significantly improve crack patterns, we propose adaptive refinement [1] and adaptive element splitting [2], increasing the number of potential crack directions at each crack tip. As an additional means of reducing mesh dependency, microstructural randomness is incorporated into the method by means of statistically distributing material properties [3]. Numerical examples are presented which demonstrate improved agreement with experimental results in the literature. REFERENCES [1] Spring, D.W., Leon, S.E., Paulino, G.H. Unstructured adaptive refinement on polygonal meshes for the numerical simulation of dynamic cohesive fracture. International Journal of Fracture (submitted) [2] Leon, S.E., Spring, D.W., Paulino, G.H. Reduction in mesh bias for dynamic fracture using adaptive splitting of polygonal finite elements. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering (accepted). [3] Zhou, F. Molinari, J.F. Dynamic crack propagation with cohesive elements: a method to address mesh dependency. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering. 2004, 59, 1–24.