A Novel Tetrahedral Mesh Generation Algorithm for Finite Element Analysis

In this paper, a robust tetrahedral mesh generation method based on Advancing Front technique is proposed. The proposed method inherits advantages of Delaunay method and Advancing Front method, such as efficiency of Delaunay method and maintaining the given boundary triangle mesh exactly of advancing front method. Tetrahedral mesh is generated from the given triangle surface mesh. This method mainly includes three stages. Firstly, the minimum container box of the triangular surface mesh is calculated and points are inserted into the box. Then the proper point is selected out to generate tetrahedron’s layers from surface to the interior volume of the model, so g the surface mesh can be maintained. The operation is simplified, and calculation efficiency is also higher than common Advancing Front method. At last, triangle intersection is examined. This technique allows generating the tetrahedral mesh with high quality elements with surface mesh preservation. A shoes model with both convex and concave surface is chosen for the experiment. The result clarified the robust and high efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

Finite Element Analysis of Indentation Cracks for Brittle Materials under Static Loading

The indentation method is able for use in determining the fracture properties of materials. In the present work, a source code programme for two-dimensional finite element method has been applied to simulate cracking behaviour during indentation on brittle specimens under static loading conditions. The study also aims to predict the crack propagation trajectories under Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM). The source code is written in FORTRAN language. The FE mesh is generated using an advancing front method, where the generation of the background mesh and the construction of singular elements are also added to this developed programme to realise the fracture analysis. In evaluating the accuracy of the crack path predictions, the results are compared and validated with the sets of experimental data of relevant published research work. Upon comparison, it is proven that this developed source code programme is capable of demonstrating the crack indentation in terms of predicting the crack trajectories as well as the evaluation of the stress intensity factors.