Using contour integrals to model fracture mechanics

You can study the onset of cracking in a quasi-static model by selecting regions from your model that will be used to compute contour integral estimates. During the analysis Abaqus/Standard writes the values of the contour integrals to the output database as history output. For a detailed description of contour integrals, see Contour integral evaluation. This section describes how you define a crack in Abaqus/CAE.

Performing a contour integral analysis
Defining the crack front
Defining the crack tip or crack line
Defining the crack extension direction
Controlling the singularity at the crack tip for a small-strain analysis
Contour integral output
Meshing the crack region and assigning elements
Controlling the singularity at the crack tip
Creating a contour integral crack
Modifying data for contour integrals
Requesting contour integral output