4.

1 Abaqus

49

Figure 4.14: Finite width corrections for center cracked plate, [18].

26

Percentagedifferencebetweenthefinitecentercracked
platestressintensityfactordeterminedbyFEAinABAQUS
andtheapproximatedsolutions:
1,20

InfinitePlate
Irwin

1,00

Feddersen

Error%

0,80

0,60

0,40

0,20

0,00
200

2000

20000

nofelements

Figure 4.15: Percentage difference evolution with mesh configuration of the

finite center-cracked plate stress intensity factor determined by
FEA in Abaqus, logaritmic scale.

Taking advantage of the plate symmetry, only 1/4 of the plate needs to be modeled for the
plate analysis by adding the necessary boundary conditions, Figure 4.19. Therefore computing
is reduced once again.
Mesh configuration is illustrated in Figure 4.20. The 1/4 plate model uses 3176 shell elements.
1/4 plates stress distributions in y and x directions are illustrated in Figures 4.21 and 4.22,
respectively.
The FEA results achieved with this mesh configuration were satisfactory with a percent