Line spring elements for modeling part-through cracks in shells

Line spring elements:

  • are used to evaluate part-through cracks (flaws) in shells inexpensively;

  • are used together with shell elements;

  • can be used with elastic or elastic-plastic (isotropic hardening, Mises yield) material behavior;

  • do not include thermal strain effects;

  • are written for small-displacement analysis only (large-rotation effects are not included);

  • are not available in linear perturbation steps;

  • use quite significant approximations (especially in the elastic-plastic case) and should, therefore, be used with care;

  • do not provide useful results for crack depths less than 2% or greater than 95% of the shell thickness; and

  • will not yield accurate results at the ends of the flaws or locations where the flaw depth varies rapidly with position, due to the three-dimensional nature of the solution in such areas.

The following topics are discussed:

Related Topics
Line spring element library
In Other Guides
*SHELL SECTION
*SURFACE FLAW

ProductsAbaqus/Standard