Resumen de Locally adaptive phase-field models and transition to fracture
Alba Muixí
This thesis proposes a new computational model for the efficient simulation of crack propagation, through the combination of a phase-field model in small subdomains around crack tips and a discontinuous model in the rest of the domain. The combined model inherits the advantages of both approaches. The phase-field model determines crack propagation at crack tips, and the discontinuous model explicitly describes the crack elsewhere, enabling to use a coarser discretization and thus reducing the computational cost.
In crack-tip subdomains, the discretization is refined to capture the phase-field solution, while in the discontinuous part, sharp cracks are incorporated into the coarse background discretization by the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM). As crack-tip subdomains move with crack growth, the discretization is automatically updated and phase-field bands are replaced by sharp cracks in the wake of cracks.
The first step is the development of an adaptive refinement strategy for phase-field models. To this end, two alternatives are proposed. Both of them consider two types of elements, standard and refined, which are mapped into a fixed background mesh. In refined elements, the space of approximation is uniformly $h$-refined. Continuity between elements of different type is imposed in weak form to handle the non-conformal approximations in a natural way, without spreading of refinement nor having to deal with hanging nodes, leading to a very local refinement along cracks.
The first adaptive strategy relies on a Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) formulation of the problem, in which continuity between elements is imposed in weak form. The second one is based on a more efficient Continuous Galerkin (CG) formulation; a continuous FEM approximation is used in the standard and refined regions and, then, continuity on the interface between regions is imposed in weak form by Nitsche's method.
The proposed strategies robustly refine the discretization as cracks propagate and can be easily incorporated into a working code for phase-field models. However, the computational cost can be further reduced by transitioning to the discontinuous in the combined model. In the wake of crack tips, the phase-field diffuse cracks are replaced by XFEM discontinuous cracks and elements are derefined. The combined model is studied within the adaptive CG formulation. Numerical experiments include branching and coalescence of cracks, and a fully 3D test.
