Computation of the crack propagation energy release rate based on the virtual crack closure technique

Computation of the energy release rate (G) based on the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) and finite element method is presented. The process is really redundancy when calculating the G value by processing the results of finite element method. However, the VCCT method can be implemented into finite element software by developing the interface element. Based on the principle, 9, 16, 20node interface element were compiled via the ABAQUS user-defined element (UEL) procedure. Then they can be integrated into the 8node and 20node finite element and output the G value by the finite element analysis. At last, two examples are presented to validate these interface elements. The results show that the proposed interface elements can be used to compute the precise G, and the computational efficiency is improved.