Phase-field simulation of fracture in Polymethyl Methacrylate

Abstract

Significant interest and developments in phase-field fracture modeling have emerged. It approximates fracture continuously using a length-scale parameter, accurately simulating fracture initiation and crack propagation in brittle materials like Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA) with nonlinear elasticity. This study proposes a phase-field approach for simulating PMMA fracture behavior using ABAQUS with a nonlinear elastic material model (UMAT) and a three-layered element composition (UEL). The staggered approach sequentially solves displacements and phase-field variables. Numerical results are validated against experiments considering various geometries, stress concentrators, and pre-cracks. The computational approach accurately predicts fracture initiation and crack growth in complex patterns and diverse loading conditions.

Keywords:

• Phase-field
• fracture
• crack growth
• brittle materials
• PMMA
• nonlinear elastic response

Author contributions

Mohsen Agha mohammad pour: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis. Peyman Esmaeilzadeh: Software, Validation, Investigation. Reza Abdi Behnagh: Supervision, Writing - Original Draft. Akram Ghaffarigharehbagh: Visualization, Resources, Investigation. Roberto Brighenti: Supervision, Writing - Review & Editing

Conflicts of interest/competing interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).