Numerical fracture mechanics (Q1189406)

The book presents, describes and demonstrates the use of numerical methods to solve crack problems in fracture mechanics. The exposé is oriented mainly on the boundary element method (BEM). An up-to-date account of recent advances in other numerical methods is also presented. The monography consists of six chapters, devoted respectively to: basic fracture mechanics; stress analysis in linear elastic fracture mechanics; different numerical methods of evaluating the stress intensity factors; the essence of the BEM and it implementation for both two- and three- dimensional problems in elasticity; applications of BEM to fracture mechanics; weight function technique in fracture mechanics and applications of the BEM to weight functions. Many numerical techniques are described in detail. A number of numerical and analytical examples are presented. The book could bridge the gap between books on theoretical fracture mechanics on one hand and texts on numerical methods on the other.