METHOD FOR NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF DAMAGE AND CRACKING IN MATERIALS

Concerning the existing methods (empty element technique and embedded process zone method used for releasing nodal forces) applied to the numerical simulation of damage and cracking in materials, a new method of modeling is proposed for releasing the internal nodal forces of the empty elements. It provides a way to release the residual stresses which are not specified by the previous empty element technique, but without resort to using redundant overlap nodes as that in the embedded process zone method. Previous computation examples have demonstrated that this method has the advantages of simple modeling and convenient implementation.