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The transverse vibrations of cracked beams with rectangular cross sections resting on Pasternak and generalized elastic foundations are considered. Both the Euler–Bernoulli (EB) and Timoshenko beam (TB) theories are used. The open edge crack is represented as a rotational spring whose compliance is obtained by the fracture mechanics. By applying the compatibility conditions between the beam segments at the crack location and the boundary conditions, the characteristic equations are derived, from which the nondimensional natural frequencies are solved as the roots. Sample numerical results showing the effects of crack depth, crack location, foundation type and foundation parameters on the natural frequencies of the beam are presented. It is observed that the existence of crack reduces the natural frequencies, whereas the elasticity of the foundation increases the stiffness of the system and thus the natural frequencies. It is also observed that the type of elastic foundation has a significant effect on the natural frequencies of the cracked beam.

This paper presents a numerical investigation on the nonlinear dynamic response of multilayer functionally graded graphene platelets reinforced composite (FG-GPLRC) beam with open edge cracks in thermal environment. It is assumed that graphene platelets (GPLs) in each GPLRC layer are uniformly distributed and randomly oriented with its concentration varying layer-wise along the thickness direction. The effective material properties of each GPLRC layer are predicted by Halpin-Tsai micromechanics-based model. Finite element method is employed to calculate the dynamic response of the cracked FG-GPLRC beam. It is found that the maximum dynamic deformation of the cracked FG-GPLRC beam under dynamic loading is quite sensitive to the crack location and grows with an increase in the crack depth ratio (CDR) and temperature rise. The influences of GPL distribution, concentration, geometry as well as the boundary conditions on the dynamic response characteristics of cracked FG-X-GPLRC beams are also investigated comprehensively.

This paper presents a stochastic fracture response and crack growth analysis of mixed-mode stress intensity factors (MSIFs) for edge cracked laminated composite beams subjected to uniaxial, uniform tensile, shear and combined stresses with random system properties. The randomness in material properties of the composite material, lamination angle, laminate thickness, the crack length and the crack angle are modeled as both input uncorrelated and correlated random variables. An extended finite element method (XFEM) through the so-called M-interaction approach combined with the second-order perturbation technique (SOPT) and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) is used to obtain the statistics in terms of the mean and coefficient of variation (COV) of MSIFs for edge cracked laminated composite beams. The effect of crack propagation on the MSIFs in the presence of tensile, shear and combined stresses using a global tracking algorithm is also investigated. The results using the present approach are compared with the available published results. A good agreement is seen whenever alternative results are available.

This work is focused to investigate the effect of various discontinuities like cracks, inclusions and voids for an orthotropic plate, to evaluate the normalized mixed-mode stress intensity factors (NMMSIFs) by implementing the extended finite element method (XFEM) under uniaxial tensile loading though considering the various numerical examples. The NMMSIFs are investigated with the interaction of crack, single- and multi-inclusions/voids for an orthotropic plate. The effect of NMMSIFs is analyzed for an orthotropic plate with several orthotropy axis orientations by changing the position of single- and multi-inclusions/voids while aligned, above and away with respect to an edge crack of the plate and for the both side inclusions/voids aligned the center crack. It is also investigated for the effect of various shapes of inclusions/voids for an edge crack orthotropic plate under uniaxial tensile loading using XFEM.

In this work, element free Galerkin method (EFGM) has been used to obtain the solution of edge crack problem under mechanical loads as it provides a versatile technique to model static as well as moving crack problems without any requirement of remeshing. At first, some techniques are presented for enriching the EFG approximations near the crack tip such as extrinsic and intrinsic enrichment. Extrinsic enrichment involves the addition of solution form to the trial function, whereas the EFG basis is expanded to include few terms from crack tip solution in intrinsic enrichment. Apart from enrichment techniques, four basic techniques of smoothing meshless approximations near nonconvex boundaries are also presented such as diffraction, transparency, see through and wedge model. These techniques are then used for the parameteric analysis of an edge crack problem under mode-1 loading and results obtained using different approaches are compared with each other as well as with exact solution. Among these techniques, the extrinsic PU enrichment technique was found to be more accurate as compared to other approaches. Extrinsic PU enrichment technique has also been used for the analysis of a shear edge crack problem. In all these techniques, the value of mode-1 stress intensity factor and mode-2 stress intensity factor has been evaluated by interaction integral approach. Effect of crack orientation is also studied for different cases.