Simulation of crack propagation behavior of nuclear graphite by using XFEM, VCCT and CZM methods

In order to study the fracture performance of nuclear graphite, numerical simulations were performed on single-edge notched graphite beam subjected to three-point bending by using XFEM, CZM and VCCT in ABAQUS. The dependence of peak load Pc on the element size was analyzed and numerical results indicated that the Pc is sensitive to the mesh size using the three methods and it is the most sensitive using VCCT. For the three models, the influences...