An augmented-Lagrangian method for the phase-field approach for pressurized fractures

In the modeling of pressurized fractures using phase-field approaches, the irreversibility of crack growth is enforced through an inequality constraint on the temporal derivative of the phase-field function. In comparison to the classical case in elasticity, the presence of the pressure requires the additional constraint and makes the problem much harder to analyze. After temporal discretization, this induces a minimization problem in each time step over a solution dependent admissible set. To avoid solving the resulting variational inequality corresponding to the first order necessary conditions, a penalization approach is used, commonly, to remove the inequality constraint. It is well-known that for large penalty parameters the algorithm suffers from numerical instabilities in the solution process. Consequently, to avoid such a drawback, we propose an augmented Lagrangian algorithm for the discrete in time and continuous in space phase-field problems. The final set of equations is solved in a decoupled fashion. The proposed method is substantiated with several benchmark and prototype tests in two and three dimensions. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.