Abstract The safety issues of geotechnical structures are often related to tension-induced cracking of geomaterials. Conventional finite element analysis often experiences difficulties in re-meshing and adaptively analyzing the crack propagation region. In this work, the Radial Point Interpolation Method (RPIM) is adaptively coupled with the Finite Element Method (FEM) to simulate tensile crack initiation and propagation in earth structures. In the algorithm, FEM mesh in identified crack regions is automatically converted to RPIM nodes and then refined for crack analysis. The behavior of soil under tension and the brittle and quasi-brittle failure types are investigated based on typical tensile test results. Especially, the crack-induced anisotropic and softening behaviors of soils are appropriately simulated using the smeared crack approach. Two types of soil cracking experiments, the four-point bending test and centrifuge model test, were conducted in the laboratory and simulated by the proposed approach. Good agreements between the simulated and experimental results have been obtained, which demonstrates the effectiveness of this coupled method for 2D and 3D simulations of tensile cracking in earth structures.
Simulation of tensile cracking in earth structures with an adaptive RPIM-FEM coupled Method
KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering ; 18 , 7 ; 2007-2018
2014-06-20
12 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Simulation of tensile cracking in earth structures with an adaptive RPIM-FEM coupled Method
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