An effective XFEM with equivalent eigenstrain for stress intensity factors of homogeneous plates

Based on the concept of equivalent eigenstrain, a low-order accurate eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is presented. The goal is the determination of the stress intensity factors of cracked homogeneous specimens. The proposed approach differs from the conspicuous amount of existing contributions on this topic. The findings of the present paper highlight aspects so far neglected in the literature, such as the mechanical meaning of additional fields and equations specific to the XFEM approximation of the displacement field. Moreover, based on the plane strain examples simulated in the present study, the proposed XFEM is generally computationally more robust and accurate than existing comparable XFEMs, while keeping a minimal implementation effort.