NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTEMPORARY CIVIL ENGINEERING

RESEARCH AND PRACTICES CCERP 2012

April 20-21 at M.I.T, Manipal,

STUDIES ON EFFECT OF CHANGE IN DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF
CRACK USING FEM
A. Ranjith
1
, Madhu .KM
2
, Bharath .A
3


1
Assistant Professor Department of Civil Engineering, Adichunchanagiri Institute of Technology,
Chikmagalur
2
P.G. Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Adichunchanagiri Institute of Technology, Chikmagalur
3
Assistant Professor Department of Automobile Engineering, Dayanandasagar college of
Engineering,Bangalore
ranjith.anand70@gmail.com and km.madhu86@gmail.com and bharath.hsn@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the accuracy of predicting the dynamic response by finite element
modeling of structures with cracks. Steel and composite materials are widely used in various
construction elements and composites in particular have increased substantially over the past few
years. These materials are subjected to various types of damage, mostly cracks and de
laminations. These result in local changes of the stiffness of elements from such materials and
consequently their dynamic characteristics are altered. The cracks are modeled as such in case of
stress analysis to study the stress pattern at those local regions of crack; while in case of dynamic
analysis an equivalent model is built with many assumptions. While there are many literatures
available on these, there is literally none that has investigated the effect on the results of the
analysis with such models.

I NTRODUCTI ON
The aim of the work presented in this paper is to analyse the influence of mesh and spring
stiffness values on the error in dynamic analysis and modal frequency values of a beam. This
problem has been solved by using the finite element method. The damaged part of the structures
has been modeled by contact finite elements with failures, while the undamaged parts have been
represented by other, well known finite elements.

A. Cracked, unidirectional beam
Damage models in composite structures have been studied extensively by many researchers.
Krawczuk, Ostachowicz, and Zak proposed [1,2] the formulation of a finite beam element with
an open crack. The damaged part of the beam has been modelled by a special finite element with
a crack (Fig. 1), while the undamaged parts have been modelled using three-noded beam
elements. The crack is placed in the middle of the element and remains open, its depth being a.
The element has three nodes. Each of them has two degrees of freedom, in the form of transverse
displacements and rotations.

B. Natural vibration of a cantilever beam without crack
Numerical simulation of a beam section area 50mmx50mm and length 1000mm, without crack
was carried out using FEM. The simulation was done using ANSYS FEA package. A stress
analysis (Fig.1) and (Fig. 2), with one end fixed and a load of 50kg applied at other end and modal
analysis were carried out; the result was as follows
C. Stress analysis





Fig. 1 Stress model without crack








Fig. 2 Displacement model without crack



D. Natural vibration of a cantilever Beam with crack

The same beam as used in the above example was taken and the crack of width 0.5mm and depth
5mm was introduced as shown Fig.3 & Fig. 4.




Fig.3 Stress model with crack






Fig.4 Finite element model

It has been assumed that the beam is made of isotropic material. Material parameters of the
components are presented in Table below.


Table.1 Material Parameters

Sl. No. Description Values
1
Youngs modulus

200000 N/mm
2


2
Poissions Ratio

0.27

3
Density

7890e
-9
kg/mm
3


4
Crack interface stiffness

250N/mm



E. Beam with crack (equivalent Model)
It is much easier to work on this equivalent model concept, this is because we do not have to be
concerned with element quality and crack introduction. We simply create two volumes separated
at the crack interface. Then we introduce contact elements at the interface as shown in Fig.4. The
effect of the presence of crack is captured by the magnitude of contact element stiffness.







Fig.4 Equivalent model showing contact elements at crack Interface

The first five modes extracted are as shown table below

Table 2. Modal Analysis

Mode Frequency
1 60.069
2 60.806
3 196.7
4 268.94
5 275.88

F. Results and Discussions for Beam with crack

The finite element analysis of cracked and uncracked beam had carried out with the help of
Ansys [17] package the cracked beam was model as solid beam and it is meshed with help of
tetrahedral solid elements. The cracked was taken as very fine cut. In the crack zone mesh has
been properly refined. All the first natural frequency results obtained in finite element analysis of
cracked cantilever beam in hertz for different depth and different position of crack from fixed
end are given below in table 3.


Table 3. Analysis results of beam

Depth of crack in
mm
Position of the crack along the length
from the fixed end (mm)


100 300 500 700
0(without
crack)

60.069 60.069 60.069 60.069
2 57.26 56.30 56.37 56.40
4 56.10 56.22 56.34 56.39


G. Effect of Stiffness value on natural frequency with constant mesh density

The effect of the presence of crack is defined by the stiffness of the contact elements present at
the interface. Multiple iterations were done by suitably changing the value of the stiffness. The
effect of changing the value of stiffness with natural frequency is shown.

Table 4. Set of Natural Frequencies


Mode Time/Frequency
1 57.941
2 58.749
3 184.02
4 262.73
5 267.79



E. Effect of mesh density on natural frequency with constant Stiffness


Table 5. Mesh Density on Natural Frequencies

No. of Interface nodes First natural frequency
21 57.941
30 58.332
45 58.976
60 59.845
75 60.049


The iterations were started with an interface mesh density of 21 nodes, while the spring stiffness
was kept constant at 250, the first natural frequency was observed to be 57.941, and then the
mesh density at interface was increased while the change in natural frequency was recorded.


Conclusions
Based on the numerical results presented in the paper the following conclusions can be drawn:
he changes in natural frequencies with constant stiffness
When the size of the failure increases the reduction in the natural frequencies also increases.

Crack depth and relative crack position have got major effects on dynamic behaviors of
cantilever beam. The natural frequency of a cantilever beam with transverse crack
decreases with increase of crack depth. But the natural frequency shift decreases for same
depth of crack as the position of the crack changes along the length from fixed end to free
end of a cantilever beam.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am thankful to all staff of Civil Engineering department, Adi chunchanagiri Institute of Technology,
Chikmagalur , regarding to this paper.



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