Vibration analysis of cracked plates using the extended finite element method

In the present paper, the extended finite element method (X-FEM) is adopted to analyze vibrations of cracked plates. Mindlin's plate theory taking into account the effects of shear deformation and rotatory inertia is included in the development of the model. First, conventional FEM without any discontinuity is carried out, then the enrichment proposed by MoA << s et al. (Int J Numer Methods Eng 46, 131-150, 1999) of nodal elements containing cracks is added to the FEM formulation. Numerical implementation of enriched elements by discontinuous functions is performed, and thus dynamic equations (stiffness and mass matrices) are established. A FORTRAN computer code based on the X-FEM formulation is hence developed. Rectangular and square plates containing through-edge and central cracks with different boundary conditions are considered. The subspace iteration method is used to solve the eigenvalue problem. Natural frequencies as well as the corresponding eigenfunctions are consequently calculated as a function of the crack length. The obtained results show that the X-FEM is an efficient method in the dynamic analysis of plates containing discontinuities.