Abstract

The simulation of crack propagation was conducted with a diffusive crack model in a variational framework. More, the physically sound introduction of mass transport and coupling mechanisms due to environmentally assisted effects could be realised in this framework. The objective consists of the application of the phase-field approach towards the simulation of environmentally assisted material degradation with the advantage of a non-required predefined crack path and a mesh-independent non-local formulation that facilitates the damage evolution with respect to material softening. The sharp crack is regularised by the introduction of a phase-field order parameter leading to a diffusive crack formulation. Besides the equations originating from the linear momentum balance an additional evolution equation for the crack phase-field is introduced. Furthermore, mass transport is simulated by a diffusion equation. The description delivered by the variational phase-field framework is able to simulate crack propagation according to published numerical test cases. Additionally, the calculation of stress intensity factors is possible as well as crack resistance curves that describe stable crack propagation.

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