A coupled finite element and element-free Galerkin approach for the simulation of stable crack growth in ductile materials

In the present work, a coupled finite element (FE) and element free Galerkin (EFG) approach has been proposed for the simulation of two-dimensional stable crack growth problems. In the coupled approach, EFGM has been used in a region near to the crack whereas FEM is utilized in the rest of the region to exploit the advantages of both the methods. In the coupled approach, a ramp function has been used in the transition region to obtain the resultant shape functions. Three problems i.e. crack growth in compact tension specimen, crack growth in triple point bend specimen and crack growth in bi-metallic triple point bend specimen are solved using J-R curve under plane stress condition to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in crack growth problems. These simulations show that the results obtained by coupled approach are in good agreement with the literature results.