A pseudo-dynamic phase-field model for brittle fracture

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sargado, Juan Michael, Mathiesen, Joachim
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Sargado, Juan Michael
Mathiesen, Joachim
author_facet Sargado, Juan Michael
Mathiesen, Joachim
contents The enforcement of global energy conservation in phase-field fracture simulations has been an open problem for the last 25 years. Specifically, the occurrence of unstable fracture is accompanied by a loss in total potential energy, which suggests a violation of the energy conservation law. This phenomenon can occur even with purely quasi-static, displacement-driven loading conditions, where finite crack growth arises from an infinitesimal increase in load. While such behavior is typically seen in crack nucleation, it may also occur in other situations. Initial efforts to enforce energy conservation involved backtracking schemes based on global minimization, however in recent years it has become clearer that unstable fracture, being an inherently dynamic phenomenon, cannot be adequately resolved within a purely quasi-static framework. Despite this, it remains uncertain whether transitioning to a fully dynamic framework would sufficiently address the issue. In this work, we propose a pseudo-dynamic framework designed to enforce energy balance without relying on global minimization. This approach incorporates dynamic effects heuristically into an otherwise quasi-static model, allowing us to bypass solving the full dynamic linear momentum equation. It offers the flexibility to simulate crack evolution along a spectrum, ranging from full energy conservation at one extreme to maximal energy loss at the other. Using data from recent experiments, we demonstrate that our framework can closely replicate experimental load-displacement curves, achieving results that are unattainable with classical phase-field models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_10991
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A pseudo-dynamic phase-field model for brittle fracture
Sargado, Juan Michael
Mathiesen, Joachim
Materials Science
Computational Physics
The enforcement of global energy conservation in phase-field fracture simulations has been an open problem for the last 25 years. Specifically, the occurrence of unstable fracture is accompanied by a loss in total potential energy, which suggests a violation of the energy conservation law. This phenomenon can occur even with purely quasi-static, displacement-driven loading conditions, where finite crack growth arises from an infinitesimal increase in load. While such behavior is typically seen in crack nucleation, it may also occur in other situations. Initial efforts to enforce energy conservation involved backtracking schemes based on global minimization, however in recent years it has become clearer that unstable fracture, being an inherently dynamic phenomenon, cannot be adequately resolved within a purely quasi-static framework. Despite this, it remains uncertain whether transitioning to a fully dynamic framework would sufficiently address the issue. In this work, we propose a pseudo-dynamic framework designed to enforce energy balance without relying on global minimization. This approach incorporates dynamic effects heuristically into an otherwise quasi-static model, allowing us to bypass solving the full dynamic linear momentum equation. It offers the flexibility to simulate crack evolution along a spectrum, ranging from full energy conservation at one extreme to maximal energy loss at the other. Using data from recent experiments, we demonstrate that our framework can closely replicate experimental load-displacement curves, achieving results that are unattainable with classical phase-field models.
title A pseudo-dynamic phase-field model for brittle fracture
topic Materials Science
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.10991