Role of interfacial transition zone in phase field modeling of fracture in layered heterogeneous structures

Mechanical behavior of layered materials and structures greatly depends on the mechanical behavior of interfaces. In the past decades, the failure in such layered media has been studied by many researchers due to their critical role in the mechanics and physics of solids. This study aims at investigating crack-interface interaction in two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) layered media by a phase field model. Our objectives are...