Simulación Numérica de la Propagación de Fisuras en Sólidos Utilizando el Método de los Elementos Discretos

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present the DEM on crack growth problems, determining the speed of crack propagation and the influence of the applied displacements and the randomness of the material on the crack pattern.
The crack growth study in an analitic, numerical or experimental way, is a matter of great interest in many areas of modern engineering, in order to predict and improve the response of extremely stressed structures.
As an alternative for studying this kind of problems the discrete element method (DEM) herein, is presented.