A Unified Abaqus Implementation of the Phase Field Fracture Method Using Only a User Material Subroutine
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Department of Construction and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Oviedo, 33203 Gijón, Spain
2
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Carmine Maletta and Francesco Freddi
Materials 2021, 14(8), 1913; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14081913
Received: 14 March 2021
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Revised: 6 April 2021
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Accepted: 8 April 2021
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Published: 11 April 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fracture Mechanics and Phase Field Approaches in Engineering Materials)
We present a simple and robust implementation of the phase field fracture method in Abaqus. Unlike previous works, only a user material (UMAT) subroutine is used. This is achieved by exploiting the analogy between the phase field balance equation and heat transfer, which avoids the need for a user element mesh and enables taking advantage of Abaqus’ in-built features. A unified theoretical framework and its implementation are presented, suitable for any arbitrary choice of crack density function and fracture driving force. Specifically, the framework is exemplified with the so-called AT1, AT2 and phase field-cohesive zone models (PF-CZM). Both staggered and monolithic solution schemes are handled. We demonstrate the potential and robustness of this new implementation by addressing several paradigmatic 2D and 3D boundary value problems. The numerical examples show how the current implementation can be used to reproduce numerical and experimental results from the literature, and efficiently capture advanced features such as complex crack trajectories, crack nucleation from arbitrary sites and contact problems. The code developed is made freely available.
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Keywords:
Abaqus; phase field fracture; finite element analysis; UMAT; fracture mechanics
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MDPI and ACS Style
Navidtehrani, Y.; Betegón, C.; Martínez-Pañeda, E. A Unified Abaqus Implementation of the Phase Field Fracture Method Using Only a User Material Subroutine. Materials 2021, 14, 1913. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14081913
AMA Style
Navidtehrani Y, Betegón C, Martínez-Pañeda E. A Unified Abaqus Implementation of the Phase Field Fracture Method Using Only a User Material Subroutine. Materials. 2021; 14(8):1913. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14081913
Chicago/Turabian StyleNavidtehrani, Yousef, Covadonga Betegón, and Emilio Martínez-Pañeda. 2021. "A Unified Abaqus Implementation of the Phase Field Fracture Method Using Only a User Material Subroutine" Materials 14, no. 8: 1913. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14081913
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