Meshless solution of the crack propagation in brittle elastic material under shear, compressible and tensile loading

Ali, Izaz (author), Vuga, Gašper (author), Mavrič, Boštjan (author), Šarler, Božidar (author)

This study explores a robust and computationally efficient two-dimensional solution procedure for phase-field modelling of crack propagation under tensile, compressive, and shear loadings by using the meshless local radial basis function collocation method (LRBFCM). The mechanical model is based on the brittle elastic material, and the crack propagation is governed by the fourth-order phase field equation coupled in a staggered way. The spectral-split method for strain tensor decomposition of a brittle elastic material is used with LRBFCM for crack propagation for the first time. It ensures that the crack is propagated physically correctly under different loading types, filling the gap in our previous study [1], where crack propagation only under tensile loading was possible. The strong-form LRBFCM is constructed on 13-noded subdomains with augmented third- order polyharmonic spline shape functions. A novel adaptive loading step size criterion is introduced to increase computational efficiency by removing cumbersome internal iteration processes. The method’s performance is assessed with three benchmark tests subjected to mixed-mode tension, shear and compressive loading. The results are validated with the reference solutions regarding accuracy and convergence rates for scattered and regular node arrangements. The effects of the iterative and non-iterative processes with different loading step sizes are shown.

• Language: English
• Keywords: strong form LRBFCM, higher-order phase field, crack propagation, PHSs, spectral-split, strain decomposition, shear test
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 26 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 323, art. 111207
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169106
• UDC: 621.7.019.1
• ISSN on article: 1873-7315
• DOI: 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2025.111207
• COBISS.SI-ID: 235555843
• Publication date in RUL: 12.05.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Engineering fracture mechanics
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 1873-7315
• COBISS.SI-ID: 9089633

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.