1. Reference problem

2.1 Geometry

As shown in Figure 1, the structure under investigation is a cylinder (of radius b=10mm) containing a circular penny-shaped crack subjected to a uniform tensile loading condition. The crack is circular (penny shaped crack) of radius a=2mm, as shown in Figure 1. The cube’s length is L=10a.

*Figure 1: Geometry of*a circular solid cylinder with central circular crack under tension. *

2.2 Material Properties

Material is linear elastic isotropic homogeneous with the following characteristics:

• Young modulus: E=197,000 MPa

• Fish’s ratio: ν=0.3

2.3 Boundary conditions and loading

A uniform tension stress μ= 100 MPa is applied. Also, only one eighth of the structure is modeled with appropriate symmetry boundary conditions.