scholarly journals Evaluation of the criticality of cracks in ice shelves using finite element simulations

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 973-984 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Plate ◽  
R. Müller ◽  
A. Humbert ◽  
D. Gross

Abstract. The ongoing disintegration of large ice shelf parts in Antarctica raise the need for a better understanding of the physical processes that trigger critical crack growth in ice shelves. Finite elements in combination with configurational forces facilitate the analysis of single surface fractures in ice under various boundary conditions and material parameters. The principles of linear elastic fracture mechanics are applied to show the strong influence of different depth dependent functions for the density and the Young's modulus on the stress intensity factor KI at the crack tip. Ice, for this purpose, is treated as an elastically compressible solid and the consequences of this choice in comparison to the predominant incompressible approaches are discussed. The computed stress intensity factors KI for dry and water filled cracks are compared to critical values KIc from measurements that can be found in literature.

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 469-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Plate ◽  
R. Müller ◽  
A. Humbert ◽  
D. Gross

Abstract. The ongoing disintegration of large ice shelf parts in Antarctica raise the need for a better understanding of the physical processes that trigger critical crack growth in ice shelves. Finite elements in combination with configurational forces facilitate the analysis of single surface fractures in ice under various boundary conditions and material parameters. The principles of linear elastic fracture mechanics are applied to show the strong influence of different depth dependent functions for the density and the Young's modulus on the stress intensity factor KI at the crack tip. Ice, for this purpose, is treated as a compressible solid and the consequences of this choice in comparison to the predominant incompressible approaches is discussed. The computed stress intensity factors KI for dry and water filled cracks are compared with critical values KIc from measurements that can be found in literature.


1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. Aliabadi

This article reviews advances in the application of boundary element methods (BEM) to fracture mechanics which have taken place over the last 25 years. Applications discussed include linear, nonlinear and transient problems. Also reviewed are contributions using the indirect boundary element formulations. Over this period the method has emerged as the most efficient technique for the evaluation of stress intensity factors (SIF) and crack growth analysis in the context of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). Much has also been achieved in the application to dynamic fracture mechanics. This review article contains 289 references.


2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (168) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Weiss

AbstractRecent investigations of crevassing on alpine glaciers and ice shelves have been based on linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). However, LEFM is unable to explain some aspects of crevasse formation such as the initiation of crevasse propagation from crystal-scale (mm) microcracks, the slow propagation of large fractures in ice shelves, and the acceleration of crevasse opening before breaking of the ice terminus. Here another mechanism to account for these observations is proposed: subcritical crevassing. Subcritical crack growth, documented in many materials though not yet explored in ice, is characterized by a crack velocity that scales as a power of the tensile stress intensity factor, but is much less than that associated with critical crack propagation. This mechanism allows crevasse propagation from mm-scale microcracks at velocities much lower than body wave speeds, and explains crevasse-opening accelerations in a natural way. Subcritical crevassing is theoretically explored for several simplified situations but is limited by a lack of available data on crevasse evolution.


2007 ◽  
Vol 348-349 ◽  
pp. 461-464
Author(s):  
Matteo Benedetti ◽  
M. Beghini ◽  
L. Bertini ◽  
V. Fontanari

The present paper is aimed at investigating the behaviour of fatigue cracks emanating from sharp V-shaped notches. To this purpose, several tests has been conducted on Al-7075-T651 notched specimens using a servohydraulic machine by changing the directions and levels of the applied load. The crack growth have been interpreted on the basis of a linear elastic fracture mechanics approach by adopting a weight function derived by the authors for the calculation of the stress intensity factors (SIFs) of inclined edge-cracks emanating from V-shaped notches.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 2035-2060 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Luckman ◽  
D. Jansen ◽  
B. Kulessa ◽  
E. C. King ◽  
P. Sammonds ◽  
...  

Abstract. Basal crevasses extend upwards from the base of ice bodies and can penetrate more than halfway through the ice column under conditions found commonly on ice shelves. As a result, they may locally modify the exchange of mass and energy between ice shelf and ocean, and by altering the shelf's mechanical properties could play a fundamental role in ice shelf stability. Although early studies revealed that such features may be abundant on Antarctic ice shelves, their geometrical properties and spatial distribution has gained little attention. We investigate basal crevasses in Larsen C Ice Shelf using field radar survey, remote sensing and numerical modelling. We demonstrate that a group of features visible in MODIS imagery are the surface expressions of basal crevasses in the form of surface troughs, and find that basal crevasses can be generated as a result of stresses well downstream of the grounding line. We show that linear elastic fracture mechanics modelling is a good predictor of basal crevasse penetration height where stresses are predominantly tensile, and that measured surface trough depth does not always reflect this height, probably because of snow accumulation in the trough, marine ice accretion in the crevasse, or stress bridging from the surrounding ice. We conclude that all features visible in MODIS imagery of ice shelves and previously labelled simply as "crevasses", where they are not full thickness rifts, must be basal crevasse troughs, highlighting a fundamental structural property of many ice shelves that may have been previously overlooked.


2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (08n09) ◽  
pp. 1898-1903
Author(s):  
Tsutomu Ezumi ◽  
Katsunao Suzuki

In the field of linear elastic fracture mechanics, the stress intensity factor approach has been widely accepted as a valid means for predicting the behavior of a material in the presence of a crack or flaw. To optimize their dimension and to ensure their safety in service, a practical study of the strength under centrifugal force is important. In this paper, it is investigated that the stress intensity factors K_ and K_ on the rotating elliptic disks having outside cracks by means of combining the photoelastic freezing method and the caustics method. Stress intensity factors K and K were determined by using two experimental methods, as a function of ellipticity of the elliptic disk and at two different velocities. The results of these experimental methods was nearly agreement, and attracted the interest.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Huei Tu ◽  
Jia-Jyun Dong ◽  
Chao-Shi Chen ◽  
Chien-Chung Ke ◽  
Jyun-Yong Jhan ◽  
...  

This paper presents a 2D numerical technique based on the boundary element method (BEM) for the analysis of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) problems on stress intensity factors (SIFs) involving anisotropic bimaterials. The most outstanding feature of this analysis is that it is a singledomain method, yet it is very accurate, efficient, and versatile (i.e., the material properties of the medium can be anisotropic as well as isotropic). A computer program using the BEM formula translation (FORTRAN 90) code was developed to effectively calculate the stress intensity factors (SIFs) in an anisotropic bi-material. This BEM program has been verified and showed good accuracy compared with the previous studies. Numerical examples of stress intensity factor calculation for a straight crack with various locations in both finite and infinite bimaterials are presented. It was found that very accurate results can be obtained using the proposed method, even with relatively simple discretization. The results of the numerical analysis also show that material anisotropy can greatly affect the stress intensity factor.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 207
Author(s):  
Krunal G. Girase ◽  
Navneet K. Patil ◽  
Dinesh Shinde ◽  
Kanak Kalita

<p>The stress intensity factor (SIF) is the linear elastic fracture mechanics parameter that relates remote load, crack size and structural geometry. It predicts very accurately the stress state. In this work, cylinders with multiple cracks are considered. The following parameters are varied during the analysis of the cylinders: the number of cracks, (the variation in number of cracks ultimately led to a variation in the inter-crack spacing), the crack length to cylinder thickness ratio (a/t), the diameter ratio of the cylinders. Very good agreement between the finite element stresses and the theoretical stresses is seen.</p>


2010 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Banks-Sills

Since the previous paper was written (Banks-Sills, 1991, “Application of the Finite Element Method to Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics,” Appl. Mech. Rev., 44, pp. 447–461), much progress has been made in applying the finite element method to linear elastic fracture mechanics. In this paper, the problem of calculating stress intensity factors in two- and three-dimensional mixed mode problems will be considered for isotropic and anisotropic materials. The square-root singular stresses in the neighborhood of the crack tip will be modeled by quarter-point, square and collapsed, triangular elements for two-dimensional problems, respectively, and by brick and collapsed, prismatic elements in three dimensions. The stress intensity factors are obtained by means of the interaction energy or M-integral. Displacement extrapolation is employed as a check on the results. In addition, the problem of interface cracks between homogeneous, isotropic, and anisotropic materials is presented. The purpose of this paper is to present an accurate and efficient method for calculating stress intensity factors for mixed mode deformation. The equations presented here should aid workers in this field to carry out similar analyses, as well as to check their calculations with respect to the examples described.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunio Hasegawa ◽  
Koichi Saito ◽  
Katsumasa Miyazaki

If multiple discrete flaws are detected that are in close proximity to one another, alignment rules are used to determine whether the flaws should be treated as nonaligned or as coplanar. Alignment rules are defined in many fitness-for-service codes and standards in the world. However, the criteria of the alignment rules are different in these codes and standards. This paper introduces the current alignment rules and, in addition, interaction of stress intensity factors for nonaligned through-wall flaws was calculated by finite element analysis. Also, brittle fracture experiments were performed on carbon steel plates with two nonaligned flaws. From these calculations and experiments, authors studied the effect of stress intensity factor interaction on fracture behavior and proposed a new alignment rule for linear elastic fracture mechanics evaluation.


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