DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A COMPUTATIONAL FRAMEWORK TO SIMULATE DUCTILE CRACK PROPAGATION IN STEEL STRUCTURES DUE TO ULTRA-LOW CYCLE FATIGUE USING WARP3D

Ductile cracks which form in steel components of civil structures due to ultra-low cycle fatigue may display significant growth prior to component failure. A computational framework was developed to simulate the growth of ductile cracks in structural steel utilizing the WARP3D platform. The basic model formulation is presented, followed by selected results from a small-scale experimental testing program. Results of simulations utilizing the proposed framework demonstrate good agreement with the experimental results.
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