The finite element discretized symplectic method for composite mode III cracks

Abstract

A finite element discretized symplectic method is proposed to compute the stress intensity factors (SIFs) of interface cracks in multi-material composites subjected to anti-plane loading. The whole body is divided into a near field containing a crack to be solved analytically and a far field to be solved by conventional finite elements. In the near field, analytical series solutions are found by the Hamiltonian formulation. The unknown displacements of the densely populated finite elements are transformed to a handful of unknown coefficients of the series. After combining with the far field, the SIFs are actually the first few coefficients.