A tracking strategy for multi‐branched crack tips in phase‐field modeling of dynamic fractures

The well‐received phase‐field method smears the discrete cracks in the damaged bands, blurring the explicit crack tip. However, identifying the location of the crack tip is sometimes vital. The widely used scheme at present considers the forefront of a phase‐field contour as the crack tip. Such a method, to our best knowledge, is inapplicable for branched cracks, which motivates us to develop a novel stepwise identification strategy for...