Boundary element applications to polymer fracture

Syngellakis, Stavros and Wu, J. (2003) Boundary element applications to polymer fracture. BETECH 2003 15th International Conference on Boundary Element Technology, Detroit, USA. 18 - 20 May 2003. pp. 83-92 .

Abstract

This paper reports on applications of the boundary element method (BEM) to polymer fracture. Both Laplace transformed and time domain two-dimensional analyses, based on linear viscoelasticity, are developed and applied to centre-cracked plates under tension in order to assessed for various viscoelastic models as well as loading conditions. Various approaches for direct assessment of the energy release rate are proposed; its representation through path-independent J-type integrals is also explored.
Systematic procedures for J-integral evaluation are developed requiring the derivation of the additional boundary integral equations for the displacement gradient distributions in the solid domain. The BEM formulation is extended to the determination of the energy dissipation rate for the incremental crack growth. Then, the application of conservation of energy, combined with the knowledge of the critical and current values of strain energy release rate, leads to the assessment of the crack growth rate. Numerical results are compared with other analytical solutions and some experimental measurements. The consistency between BEM predictions and other published results confirms the method as a valid modelling tool for polymer fracture characterisation and investigation under complex conditions.

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