Abstract
The growth of cracks fromsmall naturally occurring material discontinuities plays amajor role in the operational lifespan of aircraft structures. Calculating the life of an airframe structure requires the determination of the crack path(s)which for complex real life geometries can often be highly complex. This paper presents a simple method based on finite element analysis for estimating the crack growth path. The analysis is based on an element removal approach and uses the major principal stress as the failure criteria. Evolution strategies are derived from the biological process of evolution. Three examples are presented demonstrating the utility of the proposed technique.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 41-56 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Engineering Failure Analysis |
| Volume | 59 |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- Crack shapes
- Intergranular cracking
- Nastran
- Genetic algorithm