Citation: Alshoaibi, A.M.; Fageehi,
Y.A. Finite Element Simulation of a
Crack Growth in the Presence of a
Hole in the Vicinity of the Crack
Trajectory. Materials 2022, 15, 363.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15010363
Academic Editor: Alberto Sapora
Received: 17 December 2021
Accepted: 3 January 2022
Published: 4 January 2022
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Article
Finite Element Simulation of a Crack Growth in the Presence of
a Hole in the Vicinity of the Crack Trajectory
Abdulnaser M. Alshoaibi * and Yahya Ali Fageehi
Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Jazan University, Jazan 45142, Saudi Arabia;
yfageehi@jazanu.edu.sa
* Correspondence: alshoaibi@jazanu.edu.sa
Abstract:
The aim of this paper was to present a numerical simulation of a crack growth path and
associated stress intensity factors (SIFs) for linear elastic material. The influence of the holes’ position
and pre-crack locations in the crack growth direction were investigated. For this purpose, ANSYS
Mechanical R19.2 was introduced with the use of a new feature known as Separating Morphing and
Adaptive Remeshing Technology (SMART) dependent on the Unstructured Mesh Method (UMM),
which can reduce the meshing time from up to several days to a few minutes, eliminating long
preprocessing sessions. The presence of a hole near a propagating crack causes a deviation in the
crack path. If the hole is close enough to the crack path, the crack may stop at the edge of the hole,
resulting in crack arrest. The present study was carried out for two geometries, namely a cracked plate
with four holes and a plate with a circular hole, and an edge crack with different pre-crack locations.
Under linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM), the maximum circumferential stress criterion is
applied as a direction criterion. Depending on the position of the hole, the results reveal that the
crack propagates in the direction of the hole due to the uneven stresses at the crack tip, which are
consequences of the hole’s influence. The results of this modeling are validated in terms of crack
growth trajectories and SIFs by several crack growth studies reported in the literature that show
trustworthy results.
Keywords:
finite element method; linear elastic fracture mechanics; stress intensity factors; holes;
ANSYS Mechanical R19.2; SMART crack growth
1. Introduction
Studying and evaluating mechanical and structural components’ integrity is a particu-
larly important task in engineering. Internal crack growth is closely related to the quality
and stability of engineering structures, according to a great amount of engineering practice.
As a result, crack propagation path prediction and crack stability analysis are essential for
predicting the integrity and durability of engineering structures. Many researchers have
focused on using analytical or computational formulations to investigate dynamic fracture
mechanics. Numerous numerical approaches for simulating crack propagation have been
used, including the finite element method (FEM) [
1
], Discrete Element Method (DEM) [
2
–
4
],
Element Free Galerkin method (EFGM) [
5
], extended finite element method (XFEM) [
6
,
7
],
Cohesive Element Method (CEM) [
8
,
9
], Boundary Element Method (BEM) [
10
], meshless
method [
11
,
12
] and Phase-Field Method (PFM) [
13
]. Most fracture mechanics models in the
literature are developed within the framework of the finite element method (FEM), as this
method is robust, reliable and deals with complex geometries [
14
–
22
]. Numerous fatigue
crack models have been developed during the last 30 years based on numerical simulations
to predict the fatigue life of practical engineering structures under service circumstances.
Many three-dimensional software tools, including FRANC3D [
23
], ZENCRACK [
24
,
25
],
ABAQUS [
26
,
27
], and BEASY [
28
], use these approaches. Damage tolerance analysis, based
on crack tip SIFs, has become one of the most widely used applications of LEFM [
29
]. The
Materials 2022, 15, 363. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15010363 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/materials
