On XFEM Applications to Crack Surface under External Force

The extended finite element method is applied to modeling growth of arbitrary crack with crack surface tractions. Firstly, the extended finite element method is investigated for the stress intensity factor solution of surface traction problems. Secondly, for different water pressure acting on the crack surfaces and different crack length, the variation of the stress intensity factors is investigated. Finally, the process of hydraulic fracturing is simulated with the method. Numerical simulations illustrate that the method can effectively model the fracture problems with surface tractions.