Finite strain fracture of 2D problems with injected anisotropic softening elements

In the context of plane fracture problems, we introduce an algorithm based on our previously proposed rotation of edges but now including the injection of continuum softening elements directly in the process region. This is an extension of the classical smeared (or regularized) approach to fracture and can be seen as an intermediate proposition between purely cohesive formulations and the smeared modeling. Characteristic lengths in softening are explicitly included as width of injected elements. For materials with process regions with macroscopic width, the proposed method is less cumbersome than the cohesive zone model. This approach is combined with smoothing of the complementarity condition of the constitutive law and the consistent updated Lagrangian method recently proposed, which simplifies the internal variable transfer. Propagation-wise, we use edge rotation around crack front nodes in surface discretizations and each rotated edge is duplicated. Modified edge positions correspond to the crack path (predicted with the Ma-Sutton method). Regularized continuum softening elements are then introduced in the purposively widened gap. The proposed solution has algorithmic and generality benefits with respect to enrichment techniques such as XFEM. The propagation algorithm is simpler and the approach is independent of the underlying element used for discretization. To illustrate the advantages of our approach, yield functions providing particular cohesive behavior are used in testing. Traditional fracture benchmarks and newly proposed verification tests are solved. Results are found to be good in terms of load/deflection behavior. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.