Using contour integrals to model fracture mechanics

You can study the onset of cracking in a quasi-static model by selecting regions from your model that will be used to compute contour integral estimates. During the analysis Abaqus/Standard writes the values of the contour integrals to the output database as history output. For a detailed description of contour integrals, see Contour Integral Evaluation. This section describes how you define a crack in Abaqus/CAE.

• Performing a contour integral analysis
• Defining the crack front
• Defining the crack tip or crack line
• Defining the crack extension direction
• Controlling the singularity at the crack tip for a small-strain analysis
• Contour integral output
• Meshing the crack region and assigning elements
• Controlling the singularity at the crack tip
• Creating a contour integral crack
• Modifying data for contour integrals
• Requesting contour integral output