In the damage tolerance analysis of aircraft panels, it was necessary to frequently apply complex boundaries and loads to simulate crack propagation. It was difficult to simulate crack propagation with the conventional finite element method. In this paper, a convenient method for crack propagation simulation in thin-walled structures was proposed. This method combined the extended finite element method (XFEM) and level-set method (LSM). Crack insertion, analysis, result extraction and automatic propagation were realized through the secondary development script in the ABAQUS platform. A specimen with a single center crack was simulated to study the crack propagation behavior under tensile and bending conditions. Also, multiple-crack propagation was simulated. The present work shows that the developed method can not only take the complex loading and boundary conditions into account, but also can give good predictions on the crack analysis. This method provided a convenient and effective secondary development of ABAQUS to solve complex crack problems.
Loading....