A phase field method with adaptive refinement strategy and virtual crack insertion technique

In this paper a novel adaptive refinement strategy, which features no hanging nodes or hybrid elements generated, is proposed for phase-field model to realize the refinement of 2-D quadrilateral elements. The strategy is implemented and proved the capacity of enhancing efficiency in calculation. Meanwhile, the virtual crack insertion technique is developed to simplify mesh generation process in 2-D and 3-D phase-field based fracture models. The technique is also proved to be robust in simulating the initial crack with trial on benchmark examples. The applicability of phase-field method with novel adaptive refinement strategy and virtual crack insertion technique for fracture is demonstrated by numerical experiments of 2-D models containing single and multiple cracks. The work shows great promise in engineering application. In addition, mode I-II-III fracture can be well simulated with virtual crack insertion technique. Therefore, virtual crack is recommended on fracture simulation of 3-D problems for convenient mesh generation and higher computational efficiency.

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