Static solution of crack propagation problems in Peridynamics

The static solution of crack propagation problems can be an efficient way to find both the failure load of a structure and the shape of the crack pattern. The paper introduces two new implicit static solution procedures to study crack propagation problems by adopting a Peridynamic-based numerical tool, and compares them with the Sequentially Linear Analysis. We discretize the structures in space by adopting a coupled FEM–PD approach, which exploits the flexibility of FEM to reduce the overall computational cost of the simulation. The results of several numerical examples indicate the main novel conclusions of the paper: when using a PD-based software, controlling the maximum number of bonds broken in each iteration may increase significantly the accuracy of the solution and keep the computational cost to an acceptable level.