Abstract:
Multiple cracks/voids have been extensively
seen in structural components. The stress field gets affected
due to the crack interaction, so the effect of multiple cracks
should be considered in design analysis. Further, due to
service load, the stress concentrations are induced at the
crack tips, which is the source of failure of the component.
Hence, the current work has been proposed to investigate
the crack interaction phenomenon in structural components
under mechanical loading conditions. A mesh-independent
computational approach, namely ‘‘Extended Finite Element
Method (XFEM),’’ has been implemented for crack discontinuities
modeling. Ramberg–Osgood material model
has been used for the nonlinear stress–strain relationship of
material. Isotropic hardening has been used with von Mises
yield criteria to decide the plasticity condition. Further,
nonlinear discrete equations have been solved by the
Newton–Raphson iterative scheme. Few crack interaction
problems are numerically solved by the presented EPFM
approach, and results are presented in the form of fracture
parameters.
