An Elastic Mixed-modes I and II Fracture Criterion Using an Artificial Neural Network Databasea

Many thin structural elements such as various parts of fuselage, tubular supports in oil/gas off-shore platforms, etc may fail under the mixed-modes I and II fracture. Although there are a number of criteria for the mixed-modes I and II fracture, none of them are universally accepted and applied to practical problems. This is mainly due to lack of knowledge about the fracture toughness under various mode-mixity and rather complexity of the pertinent relationships. This paper proposes a new and relatively simple criterion for the mixed-modes I and II fracture that uses an artificial neural network database to obtain the pertinent fracture toughness. The application of the criterion is demonstrated by applying it to an example.