Evaluation of crack propagation behaviors in a T-shaped tubular joint employing tetrahedral FE modeling

Crack growth in a T-shaped tubular joint is studied using a newly developed system to simulate three-dimensional crack propagation and fatigue testing results. Tetrahedral finite element (FE) modeling is adopted to analyze a tubular structure with a curved surface crack. The virtual crack closure-integral method is used to evaluate the fracture mechanics parameters. The FE crack modeling with a remeshing procedure using an automated mesh generation system greatly simplifies the crack propagation simulation. The calculation results are compared with the experiments.