The boundary element method applied to time dependent problems in anisotropic materials

In this paper a multi-domain boundary element formulation is developed for the solution of two-dimensional dynamic anisotropic problems with or without cracks. The inertia effects are treated as body forces and the dual reciprocity formulation is used to transform the domain integral into a boundary integral. In fracture problems, traction singular quarter point elements are used in order to give a correct representation of displacement and traction fields around the crack tip. The dynamic stress intensity factors are computed directly from the tractions at the crack tip node. The results obtained demonstrate good agreement with other reported results and show strong dependence on the material anisotropy.