LAUSR

A novel meshfree discretization technique in terms of the reproducing kernel particle method is presented for accurately evaluating mixed-mode intensity factors of cracked shear-deformable plates. Mindlin–Reissner plate theory is adopted to solve the cracked plates problem in the Galerkin formulation, considering transverse shear deformation. The diffraction method, visibility criterion and enriched basis are included in the generation of meshfree interpolants for the modeling of fracture. In this work, numerical integration is treated using the stabilized conforming nodal integration (SCNI) and subdomain stabilized conforming integration (SSCI). The J-integral (contour integral) is employed to analyze the fracture mechanics parameters. SCNI/SSCI is thus adopted to evaluate the contour integral and to split the original J-integral into symmetric and asymmetric J-integral values. They are calculated by decomposing the smoothed displacement, moment and shear force quantities into symmetric/asymmetric parts. In addition, a displacement ratio method is introduced to divide the asymmetric J-integral value into corresponding moment and shear force intensity factors. The accuracy of the intensity factors and the path-independent properties in mixed-mode fracture problems are critically examined through several numerical examples.