Using Finite Element Software to Simulation Fracture Behavior of Three-point Bending Beam with Initial Crack

using computation software to simulate fracture behaviors of structures can shorten the time to estimate safety of engineering structures and reduce a lot of cost of experiment. However three dimensional numerical simulation for fracture process is a challenging issue, because the convergence and accuracy are not easily obtained and high computational cost is generated. In this paper, three new fracture mechanics models, including cohesive model, virtual crack closure technique (short for VCCT) and extended finite element method (short for XFEM) have been utilized to simulate and analysis the fracture process of the three-point bending beam with initial notch based on the finite element software platform – Abaqus version 6.11. The numerical results have shown that three different methods can be used to simulate different fracture toughness materials and fracture types. Meanwhile,based on Abaqus software platform and parallel computing technology, this type of simulations could be completed in personal computers.