Use the Crack Initiation feature/object to specify a criterion to determine when a crack is initiated in a specific region (or zone) of the geometry. You can also specify the location, orientation, and the size of the crack to be initiated. You insert and define a Crack Initiation object under the Fracture folder and then assign it as an Initial Crack to the SMART Crack Growth object to study the crack growth.
See the Crack Initiation and Propagation using SMART Crack Growth section for the steps to use this feature.
See the SMART Method for Crack-Initiation Simulation section of the Mechanical APDL Fracture Analysis Guide for additional information.
Requirements and Limitations
Note the following:
This feature creates elliptical shaped cracks only. The initiated crack can be completely embedded within the solid body, or it can be a surface crack intersecting one or more surfaces of the solid body, or it can be a corner crack.
Crack initiation may not be successful if the specified criterion value is not satisfied. In this case, fracture results will not be available.
Graphical Display Limitation
Note the following property definition requirements for the application to properly display a graphical representation of the crack when you set the Crack Orientation property to either of the manual options:
When set to , you must also manually specify the Crack Shape property.
When set to , you must also manually specify the Crack Center property as well as the property.