APPLICATION OF THE HYBRID MONGREL DISPLACEMENT FINITE METHOD TO THE COMPUTATION OF STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS IN ANISOTROPIC MATERIAL

A conformable and convergent method is proposed for the calculation of stress intensity factors in anisotropic plates. This approach is an extension to anisotropic materials of the one developed by the authors for 2-D isotropic material which is based on the formulation of the hybrid mongrel displacement finite element concept. Using singular six-node triangular hybrid mongrel isoparametric elements which contain the anisotropic singular stress field and the singular strain field, the stress intensity factors are directly obtained by the stress unknown parameters or indirectly by newly developed formulae. Very good agreement is shown for the crack problem in an orthotropic plate whose solutions are known.