Many aerospace, civil and offshore structures require the use of hyperelastic structural components. These components are often subjected to cyclic shear and compressive loadings that could lead to fatigue failure. Therefore, there is a growing need to develop a reliable method for modeling cracks in hyperelastic materials in order to predict the service like of these components. Difficulties arise in modeling cracks in elastomers due to the highly non-linear material behavior. An investigation was conducted to examine the capabilities and limitations of commercial finite element codes in predicting crack initiation and growth in elastomeric components. Also included in this research are methods of modeling cracks and crack growth as well as techniques for interpreting the finite element out put. Finite element solution convergence was dependent upon mesh pattern and size, element type, friction between crack surfaces, solution step size, crack length, and the slide line algorithms and iterative methods of the finite element code. The studies contained in this report focus on hyperelastic disks loaded in pure compression.
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