A smoothed variable horizon peridynamics and its application to the fracture parameters evaluation

Peridynamics has attractive features for solving several fracture mechanics problems. On the other hand, to ensure the accuracy, a large amount of particles (material points) is required. Introduction of variable horizon is an alternative approach by changing the horizon size over the problem domain. In the present study, we propose a novel variable horizon concept. It is known that an undesired “ghost” force arises along the transition region...