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A combined XFEM phase-field computational model for crack growth without remeshing

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Abstract

This paper presents an adaptive strategy for phase-field simulations with transition to fracture. The phase-field equations are solved only in small subdomains around crack tips to determine propagation, while an extended finite element method (XFEM) discretization is used in the rest of the domain to represent sharp cracks, enabling to use a coarser discretization and therefore reducing the computational cost. Crack-tip subdomains move as cracks propagate in a fully automatic process. The same mesh is used during all the simulation, with an h-refined approximation in the elements in the crack-tip subdomains. Continuity of the displacement between the refined subdomains and the XFEM region is imposed in weak form via Nitsche’s method. The robustness of the strategy is shown for some numerical examples in 2D and 3D, including branching and coalescence tests.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca training grant FI-DGR 2017, the DAFOH2 project (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, MTM2013-46313-R) and the Departament d’Innovació, Universitats i Empresa, Generalitat de Catalunya (2017-SGR-1278).

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  1. Laboratori de Càlcul Numèric (LaCàN), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Alba Muixí, Onofre Marco, Antonio Rodríguez-Ferran & Sonia Fernández-Méndez

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  1. Alba Muixí
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  2. Onofre Marco
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  3. Antonio Rodríguez-Ferran
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  4. Sonia Fernández-Méndez
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Correspondence to Sonia Fernández-Méndez.

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Muixí, A., Marco, O., Rodríguez-Ferran, A. et al. A combined XFEM phase-field computational model for crack growth without remeshing. Comput Mech 67, 231–249 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00466-020-01929-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00466-020-01929-8

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