Crack propagation in a chopped glass-reinforced composite under biaxial testing by means of XFEM

Crack initiation and propagation are analysed numerically and experimentally for a cruciform specimen subjected to quasi-static biaxial tensile loading. The material tested is a chopped glass-reinforced composite with a quasi-isotropic homogeneous elastic behaviour. The eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is used for studying the linear elastic fracture problem within the finite element software ABAQUS™. Simulations are developed without the need of defining an initial imperfection or re-meshing as the discontinuity evolves. Crack emerges and evolutes as a natural outcome without any ad hoc assumption. The numerical results are in good agreement with the corresponding experimental observations obtained on cruciform specimens biaxially loaded. This demonstrates the benefits of the XFEM technique as a predictive methodology under multiaxial loading without any initial supposition of the crack location and its posterior path direction.