Crack growth analysis in aluminium alloy plate (Al 2024 - T351) using finite element method

Abstract

In this paper, an aluminium alloy (Al 2024 – T351) was discretized into four linear elements and crack growth rate analysis was carried out using the Finite Element Method (FEM). The overall results from these finite elements were finally assembled to represent the crack growth in the entire domain of the aluminium alloy. The results obtained from the finite element method shows that as the number of cycle increases, the crack growth also increases linearly. This was shown for different cycle from 0 to 4000 with an initial crack growth of 0.05mm. The result obtained from the FEM when compared with the result obtained from the exact differential equation method shows a strong agreement.

Keywords: Crack, Priddle Model, Weak Formulation, Aluminium Alloy