The enhanced extended finite element method for the propagation of complex branched cracks

By coupling the phantom node method with the mesh cut technique in the framework of the extended finite element method (XFEM), an enhanced XFEM for the propagation of complex branched cracks is proposed. The proposed method aims to solve the complex branched crack problems. Additionally, instead of the constant crack propagation length, a novel crack propagation scheme is introduced into the XFEM, in which the crack propagation length is a variable which is determined by two trial calculations. The feasibility and the accuracy of the proposed method are validated by numerical tests. The numerical results show that the enhanced XFEM can easily handle the complex branched crack problems, and it has the higher accuracy than the standard XFEM. Meanwhile, a smooth crack path can be obtained using the novel crack propagation scheme.