Static and dynamic fracture analysis of 3D cracked orthotropic shells using XFEM method

In this study, cracked shell-type structures with 3D geometries made of orthotropic materials are considered. Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is typically used for analysis of 2D orthotropic plates; however, the available commercial FEM packages like ABAQUS do not offer a solution for cracked orthotropic elements. As a result, authors have developed a programming code in MATLAB software, which is capable of solving 3D orthotropic...