Durability and damage tolerance calculations are typically based on experimental data or analytical studies of simplified cases. In this paper, a new numerical approach is described which can be used with the full model loading to compute the stress intensity factors and also to automatically predict how cracks will propagate.
The benefits of the full numerical computation of the stress field are numerous, accurate prediction of crack growth, improved stress intensity data and more accurate prediction of life, thus providing an accurate method for the forensic analysis of failures.
The crack growth process can be modelled with a variety of crack growth models relating the rate of crack growth to the computed stress intensity factors. The crack growth itself can include the effects of multiple load cases including the effect of residual stress fields.
The crack growth process itself is fully automated by automatically re-meshing the crack surface and the nearby surfaces of the structure. The crack growth process is aided by the use of a fracture wizard that enables the necessary components for the analysis to be selected and the analysis to be controlled.
Applications will be presented describing the potential applications of the method to the growth of cracks in rail components.