Modeling and simulation of large-scale ductile fracture in plates and shells

The work is concerned with the modeling and simulation of large scale ductile fracture in plate and shell structures. A meshfree method – the reproducing kernel particle method (RKPM) – is used in numerical computations in order to enact dynamic crack propagation without remeshing. There are several novelties in the present approach. First, we have developed a crack surface approximation and particle split algorithm for three-dimensional through-thickness cracks. Second, to represent evolving crack surface in 3D shell structures, a 3D parametric visibility condition algorithm is proposed, which re-constructs the local connectivity map for particles near the crack tip or crack surfaces, so that the meshfree interpolation field can represent physical material separation in the computational domain. Third, the constitutive update formulas in explicit time integration by different versions of Gurson models and the rate-dependent Johnson–Cook model are implemented for 3D computations. Finally, the performance of different Gurson-type models are investigated and compared with the experimental data of large scale in-plate tear process. Numerical simulations of crack propagation in stiffened plates and shells demonstrate that the proposed method provides an effective means to simulate ductile fracture in large scale plate/shell structures with engineering accuracy.