Numerical simulation of 2D crack growth with frictional contact in brittle materials

Abstract

In this paper, the extended finite element method (XFEM) is applied in modeling the 2D crack growth with frictional contact under uniaxial compress load in the rock-like materials. First, the implementation of XFEM is incorporated into a commercial FEM software (ABAQUS) in which the constitutive law of linear elasticity and the criterion of maximum tangential stress (MTS) is adopted. Then a user subroutine is coded and incorporated into ABAQUS to simulate the growth of wing crack with the frictional contact in the crack faces. A
series of numerical simulations of 2D plane strain rectangle with central pre-set crack are carried out, and computed results are compared with experimental ones. The effects of inclination and coefficient of the friction of the pre-set cracks on growth of wing cracks are examined. In addition, size effect of materials is also investigated, and these jobs contribute to the understanding of 2D crack growth.