Analysis of Three-dimensional Crack Propagation by Using Displacement Discontinuity Method

A technique for modelling of three-dimensional(3D)quasi-statically propagating cracks in elastic bodies by the displacement discontinuity method(DDM)was described.When the crack is closed,the Mohr-coulomb rule on the two contacted surfaces of the crack must be satisfied.A simple iterative method was adopted in order to consider three different states of cracks.Under the assumption that the advance of the point on the crack front would occur only in the normal plane which is through this edge point,the maximum energy release rate criterion is modified to be used as the criterion for the crack growth.With discretization,the process of crack propagation can be seen as the advance of the vertices of the crack front.The program MCP3D was developed based on these theories to simulate the 3D quasi-static crack propagation.A numerical example of a penny-shaped crack subject to tension and compression in an infinite elastic media was analyzed with MCP3D,and the results in comparison with others’ show that the present method for 3D crack propagation is effective.