Ductile fracture simulation using phase field method with various damage models based on different degradation and geometric crack functions

Abstract

For simulation of ductile fracture, plasticity and damage are two essential aspects. The phase field method emerged as an efficient mathematical tool to address the fracture processes involving crack initiation, merging, and branching. From the wide literature, it has been observed that the information on the suitability of the existing phase field models for simulation of ductile fracture is scanty. This paper proposes a phase field methodologies for simulation of ductile fracture considering the aspects like different degradation and crack geometric functions. The proposed formulation couples the damage model, constitutive behaviour of elasto-plastic solid and J2 plasticity. Numerical simulations are carried out using ABAQUS with user-defined element (UEL) subroutine codes, defining the displacement field and phase field variable. Several benchmark problems were analysed to investigate the (i) behaviour of the specimen (ii) the performance of various phase field damage models (PFDM) and (iii) the effect of non-dimensional parameters considered in the damage models. The maximum percentage difference between the numerically predicted maximum load and its corresponding displacement is in good agreement w.r.t experimental value under PFDM4 (±10% range). The output of the study provides an insight on the use of various damage models and other parameters for the simulation of ductile crack propagation. This proposed model can be further extended to the prediction of remaining life or residual strength of the structural component.