The use of controlled crack growth in the production of objects is not unprecedented. Older uses of this method include glass cutting and for more recent applications can refer to connecting rod of some cars. Obviously, the path of crack growth in such industries is of great importance. In the last decade, with Advancement of technology and the use of computer simulations, this has been made better possible. Practically one of the well-known methods of controlling the crack growth path is the use of surface groove that can be used in glass cutting. In this case the first third mode of fracture mechanics is considered. In this study, crack growth path control was performed by making surface grooves on the specimens and changing the geometry of the grooves. For this purpose, extended finite element method (XFEM) in ABAQUS-CAE software and a practical test for validation have been used. For loading the specimens, loading of the first and third fracture modes were used to control the crack growth path in the grooved plexiglass specimens. For extended finite element analysis, the damage model based on the maximum principal stress was used as the criterion for crack initiation. Also, effective factors for crack growth of grooved specimens has been stated and strategies for controlling crack growth in the desired direction have been explained. To analyze the samples in the mode fractures, to reduce computational cost, two types of symmetric three-dimensional and two-dimensional analytic are used. By performing simulations, the best groove shape to control the crack growth path is for mode fractures V-shaped groove and for mode fractures the bevel groove. The results of prediction of crack growth path developed by extended finite element method are compared with the results of practical test. The results show the appropriate performance of the extended finite element method in predicting crack growth path in the grooved parts. Keywords: Fracture mechanics, Surface groove, Crack growth, Extended finite element method (XFEM), Polymer, Brittle
