An XFEM crack-tip enrichment for a crack terminating at a bi-material interface

Crack-tip enrichment functions are determined for a crack terminating at a bi-material interface. The stress and displacement components at the crack-tip are expressed considering plane elasticity solution based on Airy functions. The crack-tip characteristic exponents and the enrichment functions are determined using the problem boundary conditions. Single real, double real or complex characteristic exponents are found depending on the crack-angle and the relative mechanical properties of the considered bi-material. Crack-tip enrichment functions are determined for cases where the characteristic exponent is real and complex. To validate the efficiency of the enrichment functions at the crack-tip singularity, the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is used to solve a mode-I crack terminating at the bi-material interface. Thanks to two Level-set functions, the crack and the bi-material interface are located and the nodes belonging to elements cut by these discontinuities are enriched. The Stress Intensity Factors (SIF) are calculated for a crack perpendicular and terminating at the bi-material interface using the body force method (BFM). The implemented method was tested and good agreement is found when compared to other investigations in the literature. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.