A higher order fatigue crack paths simulation by the MVCCI-method

The Modified Virtual Crack Closure Integral (MVCCI)-method has proved to be a highly effective and versatile numerical procedure for the fracture analysis of various crack problems in linear elasticity. In this paper it is shown that under proportional loading conditions the computer aided prediction of curved fatigue crack paths can further be improved in accuracy in combination with the MVCCI-method. The numerical crack growth simulation is still based on a step-by-step technique but using a piecewise curved approximation of the crack path. By this method both, the new locus of the crack tip and the direction of the next step of crack extension can be computed simultaneously by a virtual tangential crack extension, For a non-symmetrical specimen under combined bending and shear loading the comparison of computationally predicted and experimentally obtained curved crack trajectories show an excellent agreement in all cases considered.