A BEM formulation applied in the mechanical material modelling of viscoelastic cracked structures

The present study aims at performing a mechanical analysis of 2D viscoelastic cracked structural materials using the Boundary Element Method (BEM). The mesh dimensionality reduction provided by the BEM and its accuracy in representing high gradient fields make this numerical method robust to solve fracture mechanics problems. Viscoelastic models address phenomena that provide changes on the mechanical material properties along time. Well-established viscoelastic models such as Maxwell, Kelvin–Voigt and Boltzmann are used in this study. The numerical viscoelastic scheme, which is based on algebraic BEM equations, utilizes the Euler method for time derivative evaluation. Therefore, the unknown variables at the structural boundary and its variations along time are determined through an ordinary linear system of equations. Moreover, time-dependent boundary conditions may be considered, which represent loading phases. The dual BEM formulation is adopted for modelling the mechanical structural behaviour of cracks bodies. Three examples are considered to illustrate the robustness of the adopted formulation. The results achieved by the BEM are in good agreement with reported data and numerical stability is observed.