A parametric study on the fractal finite element method for two-dimensional crack problems

The Fractal Finite Element Method for calculating 2D stress intensity factors is modi ed by making the similarity ratio in the construction of the fractal mesh a variable. A parametric study is then carried out to examine the e ects of the similarity ratio, the number of transformation terms, reduced integration and the initial crack opening angle on the quality of the numerical solutions. It is concluded that a large similarity ratio should be used to create the fractal mesh, and that reduced integration and a small initial crack opening angle may be used without producing signi cant errors in the solutions