This paper shows how the strain smoothing technique recently proposed by G.R.Liu [1] coined as smoothed finite element method (SFEM) can be coupled to partition of unity methods, namely extended finite element method (XFEM) [2] to give birth to the smoothed extended finite element method (SmXFEM), which shares properties both with the SFEM and the XFEM. The proposed method suppresses the need to compute and integrate the derivatives of shape functions (which are singular at the tip in linear elastic fracture mechanics). Additionally, integration is performed along the boundary of the finite elements or smoothing cells and no isoparametric mapping is required, which allows elements of arbitrary shape. We present numerical results for cracks in linear elastic fracture mechanics problems. The method is verified on several examples and comparisons are made to the conventional XFEM. © 2008 Civil-Comp Press.

peer reviewed