Numerical simulation of thermal fracture in functionally graded materials using element-free Galerkin method

Abstract

In the present work, element-free Galerkin method (EFGM) has been extended and implemented to simulate thermal fracture in functionally graded materials. The thermo-elastic fracture problem is decoupled into two separate parts. Initially, the temperature distribution over the domain is obtained by solving the heat transfer problem. The temperature field so obtained is then employed as input for the mechanical problem to determine the displacement and stress fields. The crack surfaces are modelled as non-insulated boundaries; hence the temperature field remains undisturbed by the presence of crack. A modified conservative M-integral technique has been used in order to extract the stress intensity factors for the simulated problems. The present analysis shows that the results obtained by EFGM are in good agreement with those available in the literature.