Isogeometric boundary element methods for three dimensional static fracture and fatigue crack growth

We present a novel numerical method to simulate crack growth in 3D, directly from the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) geometry of the component, without any mesh generation. The method is an isogeometric boundary element method (IGABEM) based on non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS). NURBS basis functions are used for the domain and crack representation as well as to approximate the physical quantities involved in the simulations. A stable...