Comparative Analysis of unit Force Problems using IP Theory and FEM (ANSYS)

The problem of crack initiation is of tremendous practical interest for is applications are varied and will make the difference of whether the component successfully operates or fails. An attempt is made to study the few basic and simple problems in fracture mechanics to investigate crack propagation using a fairly new concept of IP Theory. Through the problem investigated here are fairly simple, they provide the working of the method and also and an insight as to how the same can be applied to complex mixed mode problems-which are intended to be presented in last stage along with FEM software analysis. Westergaard's method is used to obtain the complex functions and they are applied in conjunction to obtain stress field ahead of the crack. Since, IP is a function of first and second stress invariants using the already available stress field. The same problem is solved using FEM i.e. ANSYS and the results found are compared with that obtained with analytical method.