International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 80 (2003) 111–120

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A simulation of fatigue crack propagation in a welded

T-joint using 3D boundary element method
Zhihai Xianga, Seng Tjhen Lieb, Bo Wanga, Zhangzhi Cena,*
a
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
b
School of Civil and Structural Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, Singapore 639798
Received 13 December 2000; revised 21 November 2002; accepted 17 January 2003

Abstract
A general procedure to investigate the fatigue propagation process of a 3D surface crack based on multi-region Boundary Element
Method is detailed in this paper. The mesh can be automatically regenerated as the crack propagates. A new formula for estimating the
effective stress intensity factor is used to calculate the crack extension. The maximum principal stress criterion is then employed to
predict the crack growth direction. Comparison between numerical and experimental results of a welded T-joint shows that the proposed
procedure is reliable.
q 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: 3D fatigue surface crack; Crack propagation; T-joint; Boundary element method

1. Introduction
The simulation of fatigue crack propagation in flawed
components plays an important role in structural safety
assessment. Most research work [1 – 3] has been carried
out using the finite element method. However, this
approach is limited, in practice, to some simple problems
due to the difficulty of mesh generation. With the
important features of high calculation accuracy and the
reduction of the model dimension, boundary element
method (BEM) requires only a relatively coarse surface
mesh. This substantially speeds up the initial data
preparation time and makes the re-meshing strategy
much easier than other numerical methods. Furthermore,
with its ability to model high stress gradients accurately
and efficiently, BEM has naturally become a popular
approach in this field [4].
Ingraffea, Blandford and Ligget [5] first attempted to
automatically simulate mixed-mode crack growth for 2D
problems with multi-region BEM. Then Grestle [6]
extended this method to 3D problems. Mi and Aliabadi
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 86-10-627-85454; fax: 86-10-627-
70349.
E-mail address: demczz@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn (Z. Cen).
0308-0161/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0308-0161(03)00022-X
[7 –9], Cisilino and Aliabadi [10], Wilde and Aliabadi [11]
presented the application of the Dual Boundary Element
Method (DBEM) to simulate the propagation of 3D
mixed-mode cracks.
Irrespective of whether the multi-region BEM or DBEM
is used, two essential factors should be carefully considered
for the successful simulation of 3D crack growth. The first
factor relates to the criteria for the rate and direction of
crack growth. For crack growth rate, Paris’ Law [12] must
be extended to the mixed-mode case, usually by replacing
the Mode I stress intensity factor range DKI with an
effective stress intensity factor range DKeff : For crack
growth direction, the maximum principal stress criterion [6,
14] and the minimum strain energy density criterion [7,8,15]
are commonly used. However, it was reported [1] that the
difference between these two criteria is negligible.
The second factor is the generation of the initial mesh and
the re-meshing strategy. These will be thoroughly discussed
in this paper.
Another important aspect in the crack development
procedure is the treatment of the corner regions near the
intersection points between the crack front and the free
surface [16]. This was ignored in most of the previous
work. In this paper, it is treated by an extrapolation
method.