Analysis of cracked truss type structures

This paper devoted to analysis of cracked truss type structures. For this purpose, five common cracked bar finite elements, according to the laws of fracture mechanics, are first introduced and verified. Parameters which affect the stiffness matrix of the cracked element are also evaluated. In this paper, a procedure for calculation of stress intensity factor (SIF) by employing cracked element is proposed. A simple cracked truss structure is finally studied. Furthermore, this article could be considered as a relatively comprehensive source of the common cracked bar elements.