METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SIMULATING FRACTURE PROPAGATION IN BRITTLE MATERIALS

A system, method and software product for simulating fracture propagation in brittle materials is disclosed. Using the fracture energy release rates and the critical separations of the three fundamental fracture modes obtained independently from experiments, and a user defined normalized curve representing the traction-separation law, the present invention simulates the fracture propagation in a non-linear dynamic analysis. By using either dimensional or dimensionless effective separation approach, the actual tractions are calculated at each solution cycle based on user's choice. In addition, loading, unloading and reloading conditions are also continuously traced to ensure the proper constitutive equations are used. Three fracture modes are seamlessly mixed and integrated.