Phase field modeling of interfacial damage in heterogeneous media with stiff and soft interphases

in Engineering Fracture Mechanics (2019), 218

Phase field method to simulate crack nucleation and propagation in strongly heterogeneous materials from direct imaging of their microstructure

in Engineering Fracture Mechanics (2015), 139

Extended finite element method for dynamic fracture of piezo-electric materials

in Engineering Fracture Mechanics (2012), 92

We present an extended finite element formulation for dynamic fracture of piezo-electric materials. The method is developed in the context of linear elastic fracture mechanics. It is applied to mode I and ... [more ▼]

We present an extended finite element formulation for dynamic fracture of piezo-electric materials. The method is developed in the context of linear elastic fracture mechanics. It is applied to mode I and mixed mode-fracture for quasi-steady cracks. An implicit time integration scheme is exploited. The results are compared to results obtained with the boundary element method and show excellent agreement. [less ▲]

A geometrically non-linear three-dimensional cohesive crack method for reinforced concrete structures

in Engineering Fracture Mechanics (2008), 75(16), 4740-4758

A three-dimensional meshfree method for modeling arbitrary crack initiation and crack growth in reinforced concrete structure is presented. This meshfree method is based on a partition of unity concept ... [more ▼]

A three-dimensional meshfree method for modeling arbitrary crack initiation and crack growth in reinforced concrete structure is presented. This meshfree method is based on a partition of unity concept and formulated for geometrically non-linear problems. The crack kinematics are obtained by enriching the solution space in order to capture the correct crack kinematics. A cohesive zone model is used after crack initiation. The reinforcement modeled by truss or beam elements is connected by a bond model to the concrete. We applied the method to model the fracture of several reinforced concrete structures and compared the results to experimental data. [less ▲]

Minimum energy multiple crack propagation. Part III: XFEM computer implementation and applications.

in Engineering Fracture Mechanics (n.d.)

The three-part paper deals with energy-minimal multiple crack propagation in a linear elastic solid under quasi-static conditions. The principle of minimum total energy, i.e. the sum of the potential and ... [more ▼]

The three-part paper deals with energy-minimal multiple crack propagation in a linear elastic solid under quasi-static conditions. The principle of minimum total energy, i.e. the sum of the potential and fracture energies, which stems directly from the Griffith's theory of cracks, is applied to the problem of arbitrary crack growth in 2D. The proposed formulation enables minimisation of the total energy of the mechanical system with respect to the crack extension directions and crack extension lengths to solve for the evolution of the mechanical system over time. The three parts focus, in turn, on (I) the theory of multiple crack growth including competing cracks, (II) the discrete solution by the extended finite element method using the minimum-energy formulation, and (III) the aspects of computer implementation within the Matlab programming language. The key contributions of Part-III of the three-part paper are as follows: (1) implementation of XFEM in Matlab with emphasis on the design of the code to enable fast and efficient computational times of fracture problems involving multiple cracks and arbitrary crack intersections, (2) verification of the minimum energy criterion and comparison with the maximum tension criterion via multiple benchmark studies, and (3) we propose a numerical improvement to the crack growth direction criterion that gives significant improvements in accuracy and convergence rates of the fracture paths, especially on coarse meshes. The comparisons of the fracture paths obtained by the maximum tension (or maximum hoop-stress) criterion and the energy minimisation approach via a multitude of numerical case studies show that both criteria converge to virtually the same fracture solutions albeit from opposite directions. In other words, it is found that the converged fracture path lies in between those obtained by each criterion on coarser meshes. Thus, a modified crack growth direction criterion is proposed that assumes the average direction of the directions obtained by the maximum tension and the minimum energy criteria. The numerical results show significant improvements in accuracy (especially on coarse discretisations) and convergence rates of the fracture paths. Finally, the open-source Matlab code, documentation, benchmarks and example cases are included as supplementary material. [less ▲]

Minimum energy multiple crack propagation. Part II: Discrete Solution with XFEM.

in Engineering Fracture Mechanics (n.d.)

The three-part paper deals with energy-minimal multiple crack propagation in a linear elastic solid under quasi-static conditions. The principle of minimum total energy, i.e. the sum of the potential and ... [more ▼]

The three-part paper deals with energy-minimal multiple crack propagation in a linear elastic solid under quasi-static conditions. The principle of minimum total energy, i.e. the sum of the potential and fracture energies, which stems directly from the Griffith's theory of cracks, is applied to the problem of arbitrary crack growth in 2D. The proposed formulation enables minimisation of the total energy of the mechanical system with respect to the crack extension directions and crack extension lengths to solve for the evolution of the mechanical system over time. The three parts focus, in turn, on (I) the theory of multiple crack growth including competing cracks, (II) the discrete solution by the extended finite element method using the minimum-energy formulation, and (III) the aspects of computer implementation within the Matlab programming language. This Part-II of our three-part paper examines three discrete solution methods for solving fracture mechanics problems based on the principle of minimum total energy. The discrete solution approach is chosen based on the stability property of the fracture configuration at hand. The first method is based on external load-control. It is suitable for stable crack growth and stable fracture configurations. The second method is based on fractured area-control. This method is applicable to stable or unstable fracture growth but it is required that the fracture front be stable. The third solution method is based on a gradient-descent approach. This approach can be applied to arbitrary crack growth problems; however, the gradient-descent formulation cannot be guaranteed to yield the optimal solution in the case of competing crack growth and an unstable fracture front configuration. The main focus is on the gradient-descent solution approach within the framework of the extended finite element discretisation. Although a viable solution method is finally proposed for resolving competing crack growth in the case of an unstable fracture front configuration, the method is not implemented within the present XFEM code but rather exists as a separate proof-of-concept algorithm that is tested against several fabricated benchmark problems. The open-source Matlab code, documentation and example cases are included as supplementary material. [less ▲]