Three-dimensional crack analysis in aeronautical structures using the substructured finite element / extended finite element method

In this thesis, we have developed a Subtructured Finite Element / eXtended Finite Element (S-FE/XFE) method. The S-FE/XFE method consists in decomposing the geometry into safe FE-domains and cracked XFE-domains, and solving the interface problem with the Finite Element Tearing and Interconnecting method (FETI).This method allows for handling complex crack configurations in 3D structures with common commercial FE software that do not feature the XFEM. The method is also extended to a mixed dimensional formulation, where the FE-domain is discretised with shell elements while the XFE-domain is modelled with three-dimensional solid elements. This is the so-called S-FE Shell/XFE 3D method. The mixed dimensional formulation is more convenient than a full XFE-3D formulation because it significantly reduces the computational cost and it is more accurate compared to a full shell model because it includes three-dimensional local features such as three-dimensional crack. The compatibility of the displacements through the interface is ensured using the Reissner-Mindlin equation. The method has been extensively validated towards both academic problems and semi-industrial benchmarks in order to demonstrate the benefits of this approach. Among them, the S-FE/XFE method is applied to a crack analysis in a section of a compressor drum of a turbofan engine. The results obtained with the S-FE/XFE method are compared with those obtained with a standard FE computation. Furthermore, two applications of the S-FE shell/XFE 3D approach are proposed. First the load carrying capacity of a section of stiffened panel containing a through-the-thickness crack is investigated (this is the one-bay crack configuration). Second, the ability of the method for handling small surface cracks in large finite element models is addressed by looking at a generic 'large pressure panel' presenting realistic crack configurations.