Analysis of cracked shear deformable plates by an effective meshfree plate formulation

A novel technique to evaluate the path-independent integral using nodal integration is developed for cracked plate problems. The formulation is based on the Mindlin-Reissner plate theory, and the reproducing kernel is used as a meshfree interpolant. A visibility criterion, diffraction method, and enriched basis are included. To integrate the stiffness matrix, the stabilized conforming nodal integration and the sub-domain conforming integration are adopted. A moment intensity factor is also evaluated employing the J-integral based on the nodal integration. Convergence and numerical results derived from regular and irregular discretizations, node density, and other aspect ratios are analyzed.