Prediction of fatigue crack propagation in a cracked beam specimen

In day to day our life, Various types of loads are acting on beams, columns, studs etc. These forces may be tension, compression, internal pressure, bending or any combination of all. These different types of loading situation may initiate and propagate a crack. This becomes more significant if the beams carry are used in large construction works. In this project Aluminium alloy beam is considered for study of propagation of an existing crack. A finite element based two dimensional crack propagation simulator software FRANC2D and a pre-processor software for this simulator CASCA developed by Cornell Fracture Group of Cornell University was used for simulation of crack propagation in two dimensional beam. Four point bending test experiment is carried out on aluminium beam and crack growth propagation behaviour is observed. These two observations i.e. from FRANC2D and experiment are compared.