Benchmarks for the evolution of shear localisation with large relative sliding in frictional materials

Computational modelling of the evolution of structure in geological applications necessitates strategies that capture the initiation and subsequent large relative sliding on mode-II localisations. While the prediction of the onset of localisation and the resolution of the high displacement gradients immediately following localisation have been topics of intense interest in recent years, with many disparate strategies being proposed, technologies suitable for resolution of large-relative sliding have received less attention. Furthermore, the benchmarks adopted in demonstrating the effectiveness of different computational strategies are often too simplistic to judge the potential value of the algorithms for practical applications with frictional materials. To address this shortcoming several benchmarks are examined where the relative displacements on the localisations are sufficiently large that a topology update procedure is required to remove excessive element distortion. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.