THE INFINITE SIMILAR ELEMENT METHOD FOR CALCULATING STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS

To calculate the stress intensity factors, we divide the plane region occupied by an elastic body in plane strain or plane stress into triangular elements. In the neighborhood of the crack tip, there is a countable infinity of triangular elements mutually similar and eombining to form a single combined element. Using matrix method we have calculated the combined stiffness matrix of the combined element and obtained the solution of the problem. Compared with the finite element method, the infinite similar element method can describe the singularity of the solution better and therefore improves the precision. Furthermore, owing to the use of combined stiffness matrix, the order of the system of algebraic equations is diminished greatly.