Mixed-mode fracture analysis of FGMs using Jk-integral: Formulation and FE implementation

This paper introduces a computational method based on the Jk-integral for mixed-mode fracture analysis of isotropic functionally graded materials (FGMs), subjected to mixed-mode loading. The present development is implemented by means of the finite element method (FEM), by coupling of Ansys and Matlab software's. The continuous variations in the material parameters of the functionally graded medium are treated by specifying the material properties at the centroid of each finite element. The Jk-integral implementation is validated numeri-cally by considering two different problems, the edge-cracked FGM plate and the four-point bending specimen with crack parallel to material gradation. The presented results illustrate the influences of material property gradation and crack geometry on the mixed-mode SIFs. The comparisons reported by available reference solu-tions indicate also that the numerical results obtained by present method have a high precision and that the expanded form of the Jk-integral is independent of the domain.