Analysis of thin plates with holes by using exact geometrical representation within XFEM

This paper presents analysis of thin plates with holes within the context of XFEM. New integration techniques are developed for exact geometrical representation of the holes. Numerical and exact integration techniques are presented, with some limitations for the exact integration technique. Simulation results show that the proposed techniques help to reduce the solution error, due to the exact geometrical representation of the holes and utilization of appropriate quadrature rules. Discussion on minimum order of integration order needed to achieve good accuracy and convergence for the techniques presented in this work is also included.