FINITE-ELEMENT MODELING OF FATIGUE CRACK SHAPES

This paper describes a versatile finite element technique which has been used to investigate the fatigue growth and stability of a wide range of structural defects of practical importance. The procedure automatically remeshes the three-dimensional finite element model during the stages of crack growth. Problems analysed to date include the subsurface and breakout growth of internally initiated elliptical defects, the growth of semi-elliptical surface cracks in leak-before-break situations, the development of quarter-elliptical corner defects, the interaction and coalescence of two adjacent coplanar semi-elliptical surface defects and the fatigue growth of a defect in a round bar.