Delamination of FRP-reinforced concrete by means of an extended finite element formulation

The present analysis focusses on the finite element modeling of delamination tests in FRP-reinforced concrete blocks using a continuous–discontinuous XFEM approach, which takes into direct consideration the mechanical properties of concrete, adhesive and FRP. Both FRP and adhesive layers are considered as linear elastic materials, while the constitutive behavior of the concrete is governed by an elasto-damaging constitutive law. As soon as a critical damage threshold is reached in the concrete, additional degrees of freedom, representative of the displacement discontinuity corresponding to the delamination process, are added. The proposed approach only requires the use of material parameters of direct mechanical meaning, which can be obtained by standard testing procedures. Hence the use of one-dimensional bond–stress–slip laws, whose parameters must be identified through a cumbersome procedure, appears to be unnecessary. Validation of the proposed approach is carried out by comparison of the computed results with two sets of experimental results. In both cases, after adoption of a simple damage criterion, structural behavior, slip, strain and stress profiles along the reinforcement are satisfactorily reproduced. Moreover, bond–stress–slip laws, which agree with those assumed in previous works based on the use of interface elements, were obtained retrospectively.     

Delamination analysis of composites by new orthotropic bimaterial extended finite element method

The extended finite element method (XFEM) is further improved for fracture analysis of composite laminates containing interlaminar delaminations. New set of bimaterial orthotropic enrichment functions are developed and utilized in XFEM analysis of linear‐elastic fracture mechanics of layered composites. Interlaminar crack‐tip enrichment functions are derived from analytical asymptotic displacement fields around a traction‐free interfacial crack. Also, heaviside and weak discontinuity enrichment functions are utilized in modeling discontinuous fields across interface cracks and bimaterial weak discontinuities, respectively. In this procedure, elements containing a crack‐tip or strong/weak discontinuities are not required to conform to those geometries. In addition, the same mesh can be used to analyze different interlaminar cracks or delamination propagation. The domain interaction integral approach is also adopted in order to numerically evaluate the mixed‐mode stress intensity factors. A number of benchmark tests are simulated to assess the performance of the proposed approach and the results are compared with available reference results. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Delamination modelling of GLARE using the extended finite element method

In this paper, an application of the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) for simulation of delamination in fibre metal laminates is presented. The study consider a double cantilever beam made of fibre metal laminate in which crack opening in mode I and crack propagation were studied. Comparison with the solution by standard Finite Element Method (FEM) as well as with experimental tests is provided. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that XFEM is used in the fracture analysis of fibre metal laminates such as GLARE. The results indicated that XFEM could be a promising technique for the failure analysis of composite structures.     

Nonlinear finite element analyses of FRP-reinforced concrete slabs using a new layered composite plate element

A simple and shear-flexible rectangular composite layered plate element and nonlinear finite element analysis procedures are developed in this paper for nonlinear analysis of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP)-reinforced concrete slabs. The composite layered plate element is constructed based on Mindlin–Reissner plate theory and Timoshenko’s composite beam functions, and transverse shear effects and membrane-bending coupling effects are accounted for. Both geometric nonlinearity and material nonlinearity of the materials, which incorporates tension, compression, tension stiffening and cracking of the concrete, are included in the new model. The developed element and the nonlinear finite element analysis procedures are validated by comparing the computed numerical results of numerical examples with those obtained from experimental investigations and from the commercial finite element analysis package ABAQUS. The element is then employed to investigate the nonlinear structural behavior and the cracking progress of a clamped two-way FRP-reinforced concrete slab. The influences of reinforcement with different materials, ratio and layout in tension or compressive regions on structural behavior of the clamped slabs are investigated by parametric studies.     

A new shear-flexible FRP-reinforced concrete slab element

In this paper, a simple shear-flexible rectangular layered FRP-reinforced concrete slab element is developed based on Mindlin–Reissner plate theory and Timoshenko’s composite beam functions for nonlinear finite element analysis of FRP-reinforced concrete slabs. The Timoshenko’s composite beam functions are developed for FRP-reinforced concrete slabs based on those for composite laminates. The plane displacement interpolation functions of a quadrilateral isoparametric element with drilling degrees of freedom are employed to describe the membrane effects and the bending effects of the slab element are represented by the rotation functions of the slab element derived from Timoshenko’s composite beam functions. Both geometric nonlinearity and material nonlinearity of the materials are included in the new element. The efficiency of the element for nonlinear finite element analysis of FRP-reinforced concrete slabs is validated by comparing the computed results of two numerical examples with those obtained from lab tests.     

Nonlinear failure prediction of concrete composite columns by a mixed finite element formulation

This study focuses on developing a mixed frame finite element formulation of reinforced concrete and FRP composite columns in order to give more accuracy not only to predict the global behavior of the structural system but also to predict the local damage in the cross-section. A hypo-elastic constitutive law of concrete is presented under the basis of a three-dimensional stress state in order to model the compressive behavior of confined concrete wrapped with FRP jackets. To predict the nonlinear load path-dependent confinement model of FRP-confined concrete, the strength enhancement of concrete was determined by the failure surface of concrete in a tri-axial stress state, and its corresponding peak strain was computed by the strain-enhancement factor proposed in this study. The behavior of FRP jacket was modeled using the two-dimensional classical lamination theory. The flexural behavior of concrete and composite members was defined using a nonlinear fiber cross-sectional approach. The results obtained by developed mixed finite element formulation were verified with the experiments of concrete composite columns and also were compared with a displacement-based finite element formulation. It is shown that the proposed formulation gives e more accurate results in the global behavior of the column system as well as in the local damage in the column sections.     

Finite deformation formulation for embedded frictional crack with the extended finite element method

We reformulate an extended finite element (FE) framework for embedded frictional cracks in elastoplastic solids to accommodate finite deformation, including finite stretching and rotation. For the FE representation, we consider a Galerkin approximation in which both the trial and weighting functions adapt to the current contact configuration. Contact and frictional constraints employ two Kuhn–Tucker conditions, a contact/separation constraint nesting over a stick/slip constraint for the case when the crack faces are in frictional sliding mode. We integrate finite deformation bulk plasticity into the formulation using the multiplicative decomposition technique of nonlinear continuum mechanics. We then present plane strain simulations demonstrating various aspects of the extended FE solutions. The mechanisms considered include combined opening and frictional sliding in initially straight, curved, and S‐shaped cracks, with and without bulk plasticity. To gain further insight into the extended FE solutions, we perform mesh convergence studies focusing on both the global and the local responses of structures with cracks, including the distribution of the normal component of traction on the crack faces. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An extended finite element library

This paper presents and exercises a general structure for an object‐oriented‐enriched finite element code. The programming environment provides a robust tool for extended finite element (XFEM) computations and a modular and extensible system. The programme structure has been designed to meet all natural requirements for modularity, extensibility, and robustness. To facilitate mesh–geometry interactions with hundreds of enrichment items, a mesh generator and mesh database are included. The salient features of the programme are: flexibility in the integration schemes (subtriangles, subquadrilaterals, independent near‐tip, and discontinuous quadrature rules); domain integral methods for homogeneous and bi‐material interface cracks arbitrarily oriented with respect to the mesh; geometry is described and updated by level sets, vector level sets or a standard method; standard and enriched approximations are independent; enrichment detection schemes: topological, geometrical, narrow‐band, etc.; multi‐material problem with an arbitrary number of interfaces and slip‐interfaces; non‐linear material models such as J2 plasticity with linear, isotropic and kinematic hardening. To illustrate the possible applications of our paradigm, we present 2D linear elastic fracture mechanics for hundreds of cracks with local near‐tip refinement, and crack propagation in two dimensions as well as complex 3D industrial problems. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Creep behaviour of FRP-reinforced polymer concrete

Polymer concrete is a kind of concrete where natural aggregates such as silica sand or gravel are binded together with a thermoset resin, such as epoxy. Although polymer concretes are stronger in compression than cementitious concrete, its tension behaviour is still weak. The reinforcement of polymer concrete beams in the tension zone with pultruded profiles made of epoxy resin and glass fibers are a good compromise between stiffness and strength. In this paper it is reported an investigation of the creep behaviour of polymer concrete beams reinforced with fiber-reinforced plastics (pultruded) rebars. Four-point bending creep test were performed. An analytical model was applied to verify the experimental results.     

Adaptivity in hybrid-Trefftz finite element formulation

With the advent of computer aided design (CAD), the development of fully or semi-automated procedures by which a solution warranting the specified accuracy can most efficiently be reached has become a necessity. It is now of utmost interest to investigate finite element (FE) formulations offering a simple form of adaptivity, easy to implement. The present study (which is a sequel to an earlier paper¹ on error estimation by the authors) identifies as a particularly promising approach of attaining this goal the p-method associated with the so-called hybrid-Trefftz FE model.² Based on a simple stress error estimator¹ and prior knowledge of the convergence rate, the solution warranting specified stress accuracy may be reached in a single trial by suitably respecifying just one parameter in the input data. The reported approach has successfully been implemented into the general purpose FE program SAFE³ and its high efficiency is illustrated in the paper through practical applications involving corner singularities and stress concentrations.     

Parametric enrichment adaptivity by the extended finite element method

An adaptive method within the extended finite element method (XFEM) framework which adapts the enrichment function locally to the physics of a problem, as opposed to polynomial or mesh refinement, is presented. The method minimizes a local residual and determines the parameters of the enrichment function. We consider an energy form and a ‘strong’ form of the residual as error measures to drive the algorithm. Numerical examples for boundary layers and solid mechanics problems illustrate that the procedure converges. Moreover, when only the character of the solution is known, a good approximation is obtained in the area of interest. It is also shown that the method can be used to determine the order of singularities in solutions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linear smoothed extended finite element method

The extended finite element method was introduced in 1999 to treat problems involving discontinuities with no or minimal remeshing through appropriate enrichment functions. This enables elements to be split by a discontinuity, strong or weak, and hence requires the integration of discontinuous functions or functions with discontinuous derivatives over elementary volumes. A variety of approaches have been proposed to facilitate these special types of numerical integration, which have been shown to have a large impact on the accuracy and the convergence of the numerical solution. The smoothed extended finite element method (XFEM), for example, makes numerical integration elegant and simple by transforming volume integrals into surface integrals. However, it was reported in the literature that the strain smoothing is inaccurate when non‐polynomial functions are in the basis. In this paper, we investigate the benefits of a recently developed Linear smoothing procedure which provides better approximation to higher‐order polynomial fields in the basis. Some benchmark problems in the context of linear elastic fracture mechanics are solved and the results are compared with existing approaches. We observe that the stress intensity factors computed through the proposed linear smoothed XFEM is more accurate than that obtained through smoothed XFEM.     

Simulation of delamination by means of cohesive elements using an explicit finite element code

This paper presents the formulation of a tri-dimensional cohesive element implemented in a user-written material subroutine for explicit finite element analysis. The cohesive element simulates the onset and propagation of the delamination in advanced composite materials. The delamination model is formulated by using a rigorous thermodynamic framework which takes into account the changes of mixed-mode loading conditions. The model is validated by comparing the finite element predictions with experimental data obtained in interlaminar fracture tests under quasi-static loading conditions.     

A finite element formulation for creep analysis

As an alternative to the initial strain method, a variable stiffness method is presented for creep analysis. The method is developed by incorporating the change in stress state during a time interval in determining the creep strain increments concurrent with the change. It is shown by means of examples that this method provides solution stability for relatively large time intervals for which the initial strain method may fail to function properly.     

Fatigue crack closure determination by means of finite element analysis

Plasticity-induced crack closure is an observed phenomenon during fatigue crack growth. However, accurate determination of fatigue crack closure has been a complex task for years. It has been approached by means of experimental and numerical methods. The finite element method (FEM) has been the principal numerical tool employed. In this paper the results of a broad study of fatigue crack closure in plane stress and plane strain by means of FEM are presented. The effect of three principal factors has been analysed in depth, the maximum load, the crack length and the stress ratio. It has been found that the results are independent of maximum load and the crack length, and there exists a direct influence of the stress ratio. This relation has been numerically correlated and compared with experimental results. Differences have also been established between opening and closure points and between the different criteria employed to compute crack closure.     

Modeling of dynamic crack branching by enhanced extended finite element method

The conventional extended finite element method (XFEM) is enhanced in this paper to simulate dynamic crack branching, which is a top challenge issue in fracture mechanics and finite element method. XFEM uses the enriched shape functions with special characteristics to represent the discontinuity in computation field. In order to describe branched cracks, it is necessary to set up the additional enrichment. Here we have developed two kinds of branched elements, namely the “element crossed by two separated cracks” and “element embedded by a junction”. Another series of enriched degrees of freedom are introduced to seize the additional discontinuity in the elements. A shifted enrichment scheme is used to avoid the treatment of blending element. Correspondingly a new mass lumping method is developed for the branched elements based on the kinetic conservation. The derivation of the mass matrix of a four-node quadrilateral element which contains two strong discontinuities is specially presented. Then by choosing crack speed as the branching criterion, the branching process of a single mode I crack is simulated. The results including the branching angle and propagation routes are compared with that obtained by the conventionally used element deletion method.     

Specification of skew conditions in finite element formulation

Fields exhibiting skew symmetry occur frequently in structural problems. There are many situations where non-skew-symmetric functions are conveniently used to analyse these skew fields. Specification of force and displacement conditions on the skew axis reduces the analysis to a half of the domain. The difficulty in using such conditions in an FEM analysis is their non-explicit nature. A method of overcoming this difficulty is developed using concept of generalized forces and displacements.