Nonhomogenized displacement discontinuity method for calculation of stress intensity factors for cracks in anisotropic FGMs

A numerical method is proposed for calculation of the mixed-mode stress intensity factors at a crack tip in anisotropic functionally graded materials (FGMs). The method is constructed by introducing the nonhomogenized displacement discontinuities technique. With this method, the stress intensity factors can be effectively determined by direct use of the finite-element results of the near-tip displacement discontinuities across the crack surfaces. The result from the proposed method can also be used as an effective indicator for evaluating the accuracy of the calculation. This proposed approach is applicable for problems containing curved cracks of arbitrary shape in general anisotropic FGMs.