1

2D Crack Growth with Inclusion

Tutorial for 2D Crack Growth with Hard Circular Inclusion

Creating the Plate Domain
1. Open Abaqus/CAE 6.9 or later.
2. Double click on Parts. Enter name as Plate, Modeling Space is 2D Planar, Type is Deformable,
Base Feature is Shell and Approximate Size is 10. Click Continue.
3. Use the rectangle tool to draw a square from (-2,-4) to (2,4). Use the circle tool to draw a circle with
radius 1 and center at (0,-2). Click Done.
4. Double click on Materials. Enter name as Mat1. Click on Mechanical, then Elasticity, then Elastic.
Enter Young's modulus as 1 MPa and Poisson's ratio as 0.33. Click on Mechanical, then Damage for
Traction Separation Laws, then Maxps Damage. Enter a value of 1 kPa. Click on the Suboptions box,
then Damage Evolution. Type is Energy, Softening is Linear, Degredation is Maximum, Mixed-Mode
Behavior is Mode-Independent, Mode Mix Ratio is Energy. Enter a value of 50 for the Fracture Energy.
Click Ok. Click Ok.
5. Double click on Sections. Name as Plate. Accept default settings by clicking Continue. Select Mat1
as material and click box by Plane stress/strain thickness. Enter 1 as thickness. Click Ok.

Creating the Inclusion Domain
1. Double click on Parts. Enter name as Inclusion, Modeling Space is 2D Planar, Type is Deformable,
Base Feature is Shell and Approximate Size is 10. Click Continue.
2. Use the circle tool to draw a circle with radius 1 and center at (0,-2). Click Done.
3. Double click on Materials. Enter name as Mat 2. Click on Mechanical, then Elasticity, then Elastic.
Enter Young's modulus as 10 MPa and Poisson's ratio as 0.33. Click on Mechanical, then Damage for
Traction Separation Laws, then Maxps Damage. Enter a value of 10 kPa. Click on the Suboptions box,
then Damage Evolution, Type is Energy, Softening is Linear, Degredation is Maximum, Mixed-Mode
Behavior is Mode-Independent, Mode Mix Ratio is Energy. Enter a value of 1000 for the Fracture
Energy. Click Ok. Click Ok.
4. Double click on Sections. Name as Inclusion. Accept default settings by clicking Continue. Select
Mat2 as material and click box by Plane stress/strain thickness. Enter 1 as thickness. Click Ok.

Creating the Total Uncracked Domain
2

1. Expand Assembly, then double click on Instances. Select both the plate and inclusion. Click Ok.
2. Merge the two parts together using the merge button on the left of the viewport. Name the part as
Total, Merge is Geometry, Options is Suppress and Intersecting Boundaries is Retain. Click Continue.
Select the two parts and click Done.
3. Expand Parts then Total. Double click on Section Assignments. Select the plate section from the
viewport. Click Done. In Edit Section Assignment window, pick Plate. Click Ok.
4. Double click on Section Assignments. Select the inclusion section from the viewport. Click Done. In
Edit Section Assignment window, pick Inclusoin. Click Ok.
5. Double click on Mesh. From the top menu select Seed, then Edge By Number. Select Total. Click
Done. Enter 41 as number of elements along the edges. Hit Enter. Click Done.
6. From the top menu Select Mesh, then Controls. Select Total. Select Quad as Element Shape. From
the top Menu select Mesh, then Part. Click Yes.

Creating the Cracked Domain
1. Double click on Parts. Enter name as Crack, Modeling Space is 2D Planar, Type is Deformable,
Base Feature is Wire and Approximate Size is 5. Click Continue.
2. Draw a line from (-2,0) to (-1.5,0). Click Done.
3. Expand Assembly, then double click on Instances. Select Crack. Accept default settings by clicking
Ok.
4. Double click on Interactions. Click Cancel. From top menu click Special, then Crack, then Create.
Name as EdgeCrack, Type is XFEM. Click Continue. Select the uncracked domain as the Crack
Domain. On the menu which appears, Specify the Crack Location by clicking on the lin signifying the
crack. Click Ok.
5. Double click on Interactions. Enter name as Growth. Select Intial Step and Types for Selected Step
as XFEM Crack Growth. Click Continue. XFEM Crack should have EdgeCrack. Click Ok.

Create the Boundary Conditions and Loads
1. Double click on Steps. Enter Name as Loading. On Incrementation Tab enter Type as Automatic,
Maximum Number of Increments as 100000 and Increment Size as 0.01, 1e-005, 0.01. Click Ok.
2. Double click on Loads. Enter name as TopPressure, Category is Mechanical, Type is Pressure.
Click Continue. Select the top edge of the domain. Click Done. Enter -700 as Magnitude, other
settings are default. Click Ok.
3. Repeat sept 2 for the bottom edge of the domain, entering the name as BottomPressure.
4. Double click on BCs. Enter name as FixedBREdge, Step is Initial, Category is Mechanical, Types
for Selected Step is Displacement/Rotation. Click on the bottom right corner of the domain. Click
Done. Set U1, U2 and UR3 to zero. Click Ok.
5. Repeat step 4 for the top right corner of the domain. Enter name as RollerTREdge. Set U1 and UR3
to zero.
6. Expand Field Output Requests, double click on F-Output-1. Expand the Failure/Fracture options
and check the box next to PHILSM, Level set value phi. Click Ok. This will allow you to view the level
set function defining the crack.

Solving the System of Equations
1. Double click on Jobs. Enter name as IncCrack. Click Continue. Accept defualt settings by clicking
Ok.
2. Expand Jobs. Right click on IncCrack and click Submit.
3. Right click on IncCrack, click Results to view results.



3


2D Static Edge Crack


Two different mesh sizes are provided. The 40 by 40 domain has the crack intersecting element
edges, while the 41 by 41 domain has a crack not intersecting any element edges.

Gallery

Crack Aligned with Element Edge

Crack Not Aligned with Element Edge


Tutorial for 2D Edge Crack

Creating the Uncracked Domain
1. Open Abaqus/CAE 6.9 or later.
2. Double click on Parts. Enter name as Plate, Modeling Space is 2D Planar, Type is Deformable,
4

Base Feature is Shell and Approximate Size is 5. Click Continue.
3. Use the rectangle tool to draw a square from (-2,-2) to (2,2). Click Done.
4. Double click on Materials. Enter name as Aluminum. Click on Mechanical, then Elasticity, then
Elastic. Enter Young's modulus as 70 GPa and Poisson's ratio as 0.33. Click on Mechanical, then
Damage for Traction Separation laws, then Maxps Damage. Enter a value of 500 MPa. Click Ok.
5. Double click on Sections. Name as Main. Accept default settings by clicking Continue. Select
Aluminum as material and click box by Plane stress/strain thickness. Enter 1 as thickness. Click Ok.
6. Expand Parts then expand Plate. Double click on Section Assignments. Select the domain. Click
Done. Accept default settings. Click Ok.
7. Expand Plate. Double click on Mesh. From the top menu select Seed, then Edge By Number. Select
the Domain. Click Done. Enter 41 as Number of elements along the edges. Hit Enter. Click Done.
8. From the top menu select Mesh, then Controls. Select Quad, Structured. Click Ok. From the top
menu select Mesh, then Part. Click Yes.
9. Expand Assembly. Double click on Instances. Select Plate. Accept default settings by clicking Ok.

Creating the Cracked Domain
1. Double click on Parts. Enter name as Crack, Modeling Space is 2D Planar, Type is Deformable,
Base Feature is Wire and Approximate Size is 5. Click Continue.
2. Draw a line from (-2,0) to (-1,0). Click Done.
3. Expand Assembly, then double click on Instances. Select Crack. Accept default settings by clicking
Ok.
4. Double click on Interactions. Click Cancel. From top menu click Special, then Crack, then Create.
Name as EdgeCrack, Type is XFEM. Click Continue. Select the uncracked domain as the Crack
Domain. On the menu which appeaars, Specify the Crack Location by clicking on the line signifying
the crack. Click Ok.
5. Double click on Interactions. Enter name as Growth. Select Initial Step and Types for Selected Step
as XFEM Crack Growth. Click Continue. XFEM Crack should have EdgeCrack. Click Ok.

Creating the Boundary Conditions and Loads
1. Double click on Steps. Enter Name as Loading. Accept default setting and click Continue. Accept
default settings and click Ok.
2. Double click on Loads. Enter name as TopPressure, Category is Mechanical, Type is Pressure.
Click Continue. Select the top edge of the domain. Click Done. Enter -1 as Magnitude, other settings
are default. Click Ok.
3. Repeat step 2 for the bottom edge of the domain, entering the name as BottomPressure.
4. Double click on BCs. Enter name as FixedBRC, Step is Initial, Category is Mechanical, Types for
Selected Step is Displacement/Rotation. Click on the bottom right corner of the domain. Click Done.
Set U1, U2 and UR3 to zero. Click Ok.
5. Repeat step 4 for the top right corner of the domain. Enter name as RollerTRC. Set U1 and UR3 to
zero.
6. Expand Field Output Requests, double click on F-Output-1. Expand the Failure/Fracture options
and check the box next to PHILSM, Level set value phi. Click Ok. This will allow you to view the level
set function defining the crack.

Solving the System of Equations
1. Double click on Jobs. Enter name as EdgeCrack. Click Continue. Accept defualt settings by clicking
Ok.
2. Expand Jobs. Right click on EdgeCrack and click Submit.
3. Right click on EdgeCrack, click Results to view results.





5


2D Static Crack with Temperature


Gallery

Schematic of Domain with Loading and Applied Temperature Field

Displacement and Sxx Field for No Crack, No Temperature


Displacement and Sxx Field for No Crack, Temperature
6



Displacement and Sxx Field for Crack, No Temperature


Displacement and Sxx Field for Crack, Temperature
7




Tutorial for Applying Temperature Fields

Create Models and Crack
1. Follow available tutorials to create the model. The material properties used were E = 72 GPa, v =
0.33, maximum principal stress = 575 MPa and coefficient of thermal expansion = 25.2E-6 m/m
o
C.

Material Properties
1. Expand Materials. Double click on your material.
2. Click on Mechanical, then Expansion. Enter your coefficient of thermal expansion and reference
temperature. Note that this may be temperature-dependent data as well as for materials which may
not be isotropic.

Initial Temperature Field
1. Expand Steps. Double click on Predefined Fields.
2. Enter name as InitTemp. Step is Initial. Category is Other. Type is Temperature. Click Continue.
3. Select the region which will have the temperature field. Click Done.
4. Click Create next to Distribution. Enter name. Enter expression. Click Ok.
5. If created own distribution, select your Distribution from the Distribution drop box. Enter desired
magnitude.

Final Temperature Field
1. Repeat above, only with the new temperature distribution.







8

3D Static Edge Crack



Gallery



Tutorial for 3D Edge Crack

Creating the Uncracked Domain
1. Open Abaqus/CAE 6.9 or later.
2. Double click on Parts. Enter name as Solid, Modeling Space is 3D, Type is Deformable, Base
Feature is Solid and Approximate Size is 5. Click Continue.
3. Use the rectangle tool to draw a square from (-2,-2) to (2,2). Click Done. Enter 4 for the depth. Click
Ok.
4. Double click on Materials. Enter name as Aluminum. Click on Mechanical, then Elasticity, then
Elastic. Enter Young's modulus as 70 GPa and Poisson's ratio as 0.33. Click on Mechanical, then
Damage for Traction Separation laws, then Maxps Damage. Enter a value of 500 MPa. Click Ok.
5. Double click on Sections. Name as Main. Accept default settings by clicking Continue. Select
Aluminum as material and click box by Plane stress/strain thickness. Enter 1 as thickness. Click Ok.
6. Expand Parts then expand Plate. Double click on Section Assignments. Select the domain. Click
Done. Accept default settings. Click Ok.
7. Expand Solid. Double click on Mesh. From the top menu select Seed, then Edge By Number. Select
the Domain. Click Done. Enter 21 as Number of elements along the edges. Hit Enter. Click Done.
8. From the top menu select Mesh, then Controls. Select Hex, Structured. Click Ok. From the top
menu select Mesh, then Part. Click Yes.
9. Expand Assembly. Double click on Instances. Select Plate. Accept default settings by clicking Ok.

Creating the Cracked Domain
1. Double click on Parts. Enter name as Crack, Modeling Space is 3D Planar, Type is Deformable,
Base Feature is Shell, Type is Extrusion and Approximate Size is 5. Click Continue.
2. Draw a line from (-2,0) to (-1,0). Click Done. Enter 4 for depth. Click Ok.
3. Expand Assembly, then double click on Instances. Select Crack. Accept default settings by clicking
Ok.
4. Double click on Interactions. Click Cancel. From top menu click Special, then Crack, then Create.
Name as EdgeCrack, Type is XFEM. Click Continue. Select the uncracked domain as the Crack
9

Domain. On the menu which appears, Specify the Crack Location by clicking on the line signifying the
crack. Click Ok.
5. Double click on Interactions. Enter name as Growth. Select Initial Step and Types for Selected Step
as XFEM Crack Growth. Click Continue. XFEM Crack should have EdgeCrack. Click Ok.

Creating the Boundary Conditions and Loads
1. Double click on Steps. Enter Name as Loading. Accept default setting and click Continue. Accept
default settings and click Ok.
2. Double click on Loads. Enter name as TopPressure, Category is Mechanical, Type is Pressure.
Click Continue. Select the top face of the domain. Click Done. Enter -1 as Magnitude, other settings
are default. Click Ok.
3. Repeat step 2 for the bottom face of the domain, entering the name as BottomPressure.
4. Double click on BCs. Enter name as FixedBREdge, Step is Initial, Category is Mechanical, Types
for Selected Step is Displacement/Rotation. Click on the bottom right corner of the domain. Click
Done. Set U1, U2 and UR3 to zero. Click Ok.
5. Repeat step 4 for the top right corner of the domain. Enter name as RollerTREdge. Set U1 and UR3
to zero.
6. Expand Field Output Requests, double click on F-Output-1. Expand the Failure/Fracture options
and check the box next to PHILSM, Level set value phi. Click Ok. This will allow you to view the level
set function defining the crack.

Solving the System of Equations
1. Double click on Jobs. Enter name as EdgeCrack3D. Click Continue. Accept default settings by
clicking Ok.
2. Expand Jobs. Right click on EdgeCrack3D and click Submit.
3. Right click on EdgeCrack3D, click Results to view results.















10

3D Static Edge Crack SIF Study

Introduction
Here is a study into the rate of convergence of Mode I stress intensity factor evaluated using contour
integrals for an edge crack in a finite plate under uniaxial tension within Abaqus. Convergence is
defined here as the relative error (calculated/theoretical) as a function of the mesh density (h is length
of a side of the square/cube element). Results are compared for a variety of meshes and the final
results are compared to the convergence rate for MXFEM, which can be downloaded from this
website. Within Abaqus the domain is defined to be 1 x 1 x 4 with an edge crack of length 0.3. The
same domain is used in MXFEM with plane strain elements. Several input files are available for
download. Note that only 3D contour integrals are allowed within Abaqus, while 2D is used in MXFEM.

Downloadable Files

Abaqus Input Files: 10 Elements Per Unit Length (INP,CAE)
MXFEM Input File: 10 Elements Per Unit Length (m)

Gallery


Note that only contour 3 from Abaqus is used to compare to MXFEM, which also used the third
contour for the evaluation of the stress intensity factors.

Tutorial for Stress Intensity Factor Evaluation

Material Properties Used
Fracture Energy: 10e3
Maximum Principal Stress: 1e6
Poisson's Ratio: 0.33
Young's Modulus: 10e6

Requesting Contour Integral Evaluation
1. For a model with a predefined crack, double click on History Output Requests.
2. Enter SIF as name of History Output Request, Step is Loading, Click Continue.
3. Select Crack from Domain, then the Crack for which you want the SIFs evaluated.
4. Select the Frequency and Number of Contours to your liking. Here Last Increment and 3 were used.
5. Type was chosen as Stress Intensity Factors with Maximum Energy Release Rate as the Crack
11

Initiation Criterion. Click Ok.
6. The stress intensity factor data can then be viewed from History Output in the Results screen.

Interpretation of Stress Intensity Factor Data
Here all of the values of the third contour have been averaged together to find a single Mode I stress
intensity factor within Abaqus.

Discussion of Stress Intensity Factor Results
From the provided plot it is clear that the two-dimensional plane strain code converges to the
theoretical stress intensity factor more quickly than the Abaqus model. This may be a result of the
Abaqus model not being sufficiently long to simulate a plane strain condition. The main point of these
results is simply to show that for accurate stress intensity factor calculations within Abaqus, a fine
mesh around the crack tip is necessary, especially since stress intensity factor values are typically
more accurate for two-dimensions
1
than three-dimensions
2
.





















12

3D Static Penny Crack



Gallery



Tutorial for 3D Penny Crack

Creating the Uncracked Domain
1. Open Abaqus/CAE 6.9 or later.
2. Double click on Parts. Enter name as Solid, Modeling Space is 3D, Type is Deformable, Base
Feature is Solid and Approximate Size is 5. Click Continue.
3. Use the rectangle tool to draw a square from (-2,-2) to (2,2). Click Done. Enter 4 for the depth. Click
Ok.
4. Double click on Materials. Enter name as Aluminum. Click on Mechanical, then Elasticity, then
Elastic. Enter Young's modulus as 70 GPa and Poisson's ratio as 0.33. Click on Mechanical, then
Damage for Traction Separation laws, then Maxps Damage. Enter a value of 500 MPa. Click Ok.
5. Double click on Sections. Name as Main. Accept default settings by clicking Continue. Select
Aluminum as material and click box by Plane stress/strain thickness. Enter 1 as thickness. Click Ok.
6. Expand Parts then expand Plate. Double click on Section Assignments. Select the domain. Click
Done. Accept default settings. Click Ok.
7. Expand Solid. Double click on Mesh. From the top menu select Seed, then Edge By Number. Select
the Domain. Click Done. Enter 20 as Number of elements along the edges. Hit Enter. Click Done.
8. From the top menu select Mesh, then Controls. Select Hex, Structured. Click Ok. From the top
menu select Mesh, then Part. Click Yes.
9. Expand Assembly. Double click on Instances. Select Plate. Accept default settings by clicking Ok.

Creating the Cracked Domain
1. Double click on Parts. Enter name as Crack, Modeling Space is 3D Planar, Type is Deformable,
Base Feature is Shell, Type is Planar and Approximate Size is 5. Click Continue.
2. Draw a circle with center at (0,0) and radius of 5. Click Done.
3. Expand Assembly, then double click on Instances. Select Crack. Accept default settings by clicking
Ok.
4. Under the menu to the left of the viewport, click Translate Instance. Select the Crack. Click Done.
Initial vector is (0,0,0), second vector is (0,0,2). Click Ok.
13

5. Expand Assembly, the Instances. Right click on Crack, then Suppress.
6. Double click Set. Name as Domain. Type is Element. Click Continue. Select all elements. Click
Done.
7. Expand Assembly, then Instances. Right click on Crack, then Resume. Right click on Solid, then
Suppress.
8. Double click on Interactions. Click Cancel. From top menu click Special, then Crack, then Create.
Name as Penny, Type is XFEM. Click Continue. Select the previously created set as the Crack
Domain. On the menu which appears, Specify the Crack Location by clicking on the planar segment
corresponding to the crack. Click Ok.
9. Expand Assembly, then Instances. Right click on Solid, then Resume.

Creating the Boundary Conditions and Loads
1. Double click on Steps. Enter Name as Loading. Accept default setting and click Continue. Accept
default settings and click Ok.
2. Double click on Loads. Enter name as TopPressure, Category is Mechanical, Type is Pressure.
Click Continue. Select the top face of the domain. Click Done. Enter -1 as Magnitude, other settings
are default. Click Ok.
3. Repeat step 2 for the bottom face of the domain, entering the name as BottomPressure.
4. Create three sets of boundary conditions. For an origin at the bottom center of the solid the
following points are fixed such that they are not allowed to move in the x-direction: (2,0,4), (-2,0,4),
(2,0,0), (-2,0,0), y-direction: (0,2,4), (0,-2,4), (0,2,0), (0,-2,0) and z-direction: (2,2,2), (2,-2,2), (-2,2,2), (-
2,-2,0).
5. Expand Field Output Requests, double click on F-Output-1. Expand the Failure/Fracture options
and check the box next to PHILSM, Level set value phi. Click Ok. This will allow you to view the level
set function defining the crack.

Solving the System of Equations
1. Double click on Jobs. Enter name as Penny. Click Continue. Accept default settings by clicking Ok.
2. Expand Jobs. Right click on Penny and click Submit.
3. Right click on Penny, click Results to view results.