Keywords: cohesive crack, nonlinear analysis, fracture mechanics, boundary element method, sub-region technique, interfaces..

This paper is concerned with the development of a numerical model for structural analysis of solids composed by multi-domains considering cohesive discontinuities along their interfaces. The numerical method adopted is the boundary element method, through its singular and hyper-singular integral equations. As a result of the mesh dimensionality reduction provided by the boundary element method, this numerical method is robust and accurate for analyzing the fracture process in solids, as well as physical nonlinearities that occurs along the body's boundaries. Multidomain structures are modelled considering the sub-region technique, in which both equilibrium of forces and compatibility of displacements are enforced along all interfaces. The crack propagation process is simulated using the fictitious crack model, in which the residual resistance of the region ahead the crack tip is represented by cohesive tractions. It leads to a nonlinear problem relating the tractions at cohesive interface cracks to its crack opening displacements. The implemented formulation is applied to the analysis of three examples. The numerical response achieved are compared with numerical and experimental solutions available in the literature in order to show the robustness and accuracy of the formulation.

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