Development of fracture mechanics expression by finite element analysis

With the extensive usage of fracture mechanics in the design, quality control and integrity assessment of engineering components, it is imperative that fracture mechanics expressions, which relate the stress intensity factor and compliance to the geometry of the cracked configuration, be developed. In this endeavour, the finite element method can be extremely useful. The paper discusses the use of finite element analysis for the development of fracture mechanics expressions, and illustrates the usage with some recent work carried out by the authors at NML.