THE USE OF TRANSITION-ELEMENTS

Since the introduction of transition elements for crack tip singularity modelling, a number of opinions have been expressed regarding their application and performance. In particular, conflicting proposals concerning optimal transition element size have been suggested. In order to resolve the anomaly, a critical examination of these proposals was made. Consequently, several inconsistencies with regard to the derivation of the mid-node location of these transition elements were revealed. The effects of these inconsistencies were examined numerically and the accuracy of the computed stress intensity factors was compared with the original formulation of Lynn and Ingraffea. The results of the numerical analyses appear to show no discernible optimal transition element size.