Physics

Finite element method

Brittleness

Mechanics

Structural engineering

Machine learning

Engineering

Philosophy

Composite material

Materials science

Stress (linguistics)

Damage mechanics

Stress field

Computer science

Linguistics

Brittle fracture

Fracture (geology)

Computer simulation

Fracture mechanics

Spurious relationship

International Journal of Damage Mechanics

Current numerical methods cannot simulate well three-dimensional (3D) fracture process of solids. In order to study 3D fracture process of brittle-like materials and improve crack growth path prediction accuracy, a method is developed based on continuum damage mechanics and finite element method. In the developed method, damage is computed by homogenizing stress or strain in the preset characteristic field for reducing the spurious mesh sensitivity. Meanwhile, an additional procedure is used to consider the unstable and competing fracture process, which can be used to consider stress redistribution due to local damage evolution during the fracture process simulation. In addition, a damage model of concrete is also developed and used to describe material damage. Finally, 3D fracture process of two numerical examples, were simulated and compared with the experimental results by using the developed method. The 3D crack growth path and macroscopic mechanical behaviors can be predicted by the developed method coupled with a damage model. From the comparison, the effectiveness and modeling capability of the developed method are verified, which can be used to study 3D fracture mechanisms of concrete-like materials.

A continuum damage-based three-dimensional fracture simulation method for brittle-like materials