Spring 2008
EM388F Term Paper: Finite Element MEthod in Fracture Mechanics
Early applications of the finite element method to crack problem was
developed by Swedlow and et al. Even though they could get reasonable
accuracy about 5 to 10%, later study showed that solutions in the
vicinity of the crack tip cannot be guranteed to be accurate regardless
of the mesh density around tip. In order to overcome this problem,
people developed special crack tip elements.
In this term paper, I'm going to present 1) Finite Element Method in
Fracture Mechanics and 2) NewFinite Element technique so called Extended Element Method.
EM 388F Term Paper: Subcritical Cracking of Low-k Dielectrics
Abstract
With the scaling of VLSI, ultra low-k dielectrics with porosity are being introduced to reduce the capacitance coupling. But due to the weak bonding strengths, low-k dielectrics may fail by environmental-assisted subcritical cracking, fracture at stresses far below the loads required for catastrophic failure, causing reliability issues. In this term paper, several references are reviewed to investigate the mechanism of subcritical cracking at multiscale levels.