Modelling progressive failure in multi-phase materials using a phase field method

Abstract

In this paper, a new phase field method is proposed for modelling of progressive failure in multi-phase materials. Material properties of the interface between inclusion and matrix are regularized by an auxiliary interface phase field. In addition, crack initiation and propagation are simulated by using another crack phase field. Different failure mechanisms such as interface debonding, matrix cracking and the interaction between these two failure mechanisms are modelled in a unified framework. For general application of the framework, an image processing method is employed to identify the individual phases for a given multi-phase material. The proposed method is implemented into the commercial software ABAQUS through a user subroutine UEL (user defined element). The derived method is validated through an example of a single fiber reinforced composite system. Moreover, a procedure for choosing parameters of the proposed phase field model is discussed. Further, the validated method is applied to fracture analysis of a multi-phase concrete structure and complex failure mechanisms within and across the phases are captured.

An extension of the phase field method to model interactions between interfacial damage and brittle fracture in elastoplastic composites

“…From these results it is observed that the crack nucleates from the interface and then kinks into the matrix when reaching a certain point. This leads to the final predicted semi-debonding angle of 65.10 • which is similar to the quasi brittle cases [73,74]. The difference compared with similar cases but involving a quasi brittle matrix [53,74] is that the initial interface debonding position in this model is about 45 • direction in the fiber surface (see Fig.…”

Phase field modelling of microscopic failure in composite laminates

“…In the previous study, 53 the authors have proposed an interface regularization scheme to eliminate the material heterogeneity by introducing an auxiliary phase field termed as the interface phase field (IPF). The previous regularization theory was proposed mostly for concrete or materials in which the shape of the inclusion could be arbitrary.…”

“…In the previous study, 53 the distribution of g is obtained through solving the finite element equation. For this purpose, one has to set the value of g to be 1 to satisfy the Dirichlet boundary condition.…”

“…49 In the previous study, the authors developed a few phase field models for modelling failure process in composites. [50][51][52][53] Among the contributions, we introduced an auxiliary interface phase field model in Zhang et al 53 to regularize the interface between inclusion and matrix. Such that the failure process in composite at microscopic length scale involving inclusion debonding and matrix cracking can be modelled effectively.…”

FFT phase-field model combined with cohesive composite voxels for fracture of composite materials with interfaces

“…In their work, by analogy to the phase field method, the interface was regularised throughout the whole computation domain according to a level set function. This idea of interface regularisation was also incorporated by Zhang et al [11] based on the unified phase field model of [7] for cohesive fracture problems. Hansen-Dörr et al [12] proposed a phase field model, in which the adhesive interface is assigned a fracture toughness within a finite width.…”