Analysis of fatigue crack growth in structural components by Element-Free Galerkin method

Prediction of the paths of growing cracks and estimation of their fatigue lives are important features at the design stage since they are related with cost-effective solution considering the total lifetime of structure. In this study, Element-Free Galerkin(EFG) method, one of the Meshfree Methods, is used to analyze fatigue crack propagation problems in steel component. The remaining life time estimation technique of steel members with initial cracks by using a crack growth integration scheme combined with EFG analysis is also presented. The results of numerical examples show that the prediction of crack path and the estimation of remaining fatigue life are done successfully by the proposed method.