A numerical method to simulate ductile failure of tensile plates with interacting through-wall cracks

This paper proposes a simple numerical method to simulate ductile failure behaviours of tensile plates with interacting through-wall cracks. The method is based on the finite element damage analysis using the stress-modified fracture strain damage model. To validate the proposed method, simulated results are compared with a total of 23 published experimental data of flat tensile plates with interacting through-wall cracks. Despite its simplicity, the proposed method well predicted the experimental maximum loads of tensile plates with interacting cracks, including the loads for crack coalescence. Systematic analyses are also performed to investigate the effect of the element size used in the finite element damage analysis.