IN two previous notes1, Prof. Max Born and I have shown that one can obtain a theory of superconductivity by taking account of the fact that the interaction of the electrons with the ionic lattice is appreciable only near the boundaries of Brillouin zones, and particularly strong near the corners of these. This leads to the criterion that the metal should be superconductive if a set of corners of a Brillouin zone is lying very near the Fermi surface, considered as a sphere, which limits the region in the momentum space completely filled with electrons.

On the theory of superconductivity

In this contribution we address the issue of efficient finite element treatment for phase-field modeling of brittle fracture. We start by providing an overview of the existing quasi-static and dynamic phase-field fracture formulations from the physics and the mechanics communities. Within the formulations stemming from Griffith's theory, we focus on quasi-static models featuring a tension-compression split, which prevent cracking in compression and interpenetration of the crack faces upon closure, and on the staggered algorithmic implementation due to its proved robustness. In this paper, we establish an appropriate stopping criterion for the staggered scheme. Moreover, we propose and test the so-called hybrid formulation, which leads within a staggered implementation to an incrementally linear problem. This enables a significant reduction of computational cost--about one order of magnitude--with respect to the available (non-linear) models. The conceptual and structural similarities of the hybrid formulation to gradient-enhanced continuum damage mechanics are outlined as well. Several benchmark problems are solved, including one with own experimental verification.

A review on phase-field models of brittle fracture and a new fast hybrid formulation

Phase-field modeling of brittle fracture in elastic solids is a well-established framework that overcomes the limitations of the classical Griffith theory in the prediction of crack nucleation and in the identification of complicated crack paths including branching and merging. We propose a novel phase-field model for ductile fracture of elasto-plastic solids in the quasi-static kinematically linear regime. The formulation is shown to capture the entire range of behavior of a ductile material exhibiting $$J_2$$J2-plasticity, encompassing plasticization, crack initiation, propagation and failure. Several examples demonstrate the ability of the model to reproduce some important phenomenological features of ductile fracture as reported in the experimental literature.

http://congress.cimne.com/coupled2015/admin/files/fileabstract/a482.pdf

Phase-field modeling of ductile fracture

Dynamic fracture mechanics

Being one of the most promising candidates for the modeling of localized failure in solids, so far the phase-field method has been applied only to brittle fracture with very few exceptions. In this work, a unified phase-field theory for the mechanics of damage and quasi-brittle failure is proposed within the framework of thermodynamics. Specifically, the crack phase-field and its gradient are introduced to regularize the sharp crack topology in a purely geometric context. The energy dissipation functional due to crack evolution and the stored energy functional of the bulk are characterized by a crack geometric function of polynomial type and an energetic degradation function of rational type, respectively. Standard arguments of thermodynamics then yield the macroscopic balance equation coupled with an extra evolution law of gradient type for the crack phase-field, governed by the aforesaid constitutive functions. The classical phase-field models for brittle fracture are recovered as particular examples. More importantly, the constitutive functions optimal for quasi-brittle failure are determined such that the proposed phase-field theory converges to a cohesive zone model for a vanishing length scale. Those general softening laws frequently adopted for quasi-brittle failure, e.g., linear, exponential, hyperbolic and Cornelissen et al. (1986) ones, etc., can be reproduced or fit with high precision. Except for the internal length scale, all the other model parameters can be determined from standard material properties (i.e., Young’s modulus, failure strength, fracture energy and the target softening law). Some representative numerical examples are presented for the validation. It is found that both the internal length scale and the mesh size have little influences on the overall global responses, so long as the former can be well resolved by sufficiently fine mesh. In particular, for the benchmark tests of concrete the numerical results of load versus displacement curve and crack paths both agree well with the experimental data, showing validity of the proposed phase-field theory for the modeling of damage and quasi-brittle failure in solids.

A unified phase-field theory for the mechanics of damage and quasi-brittle failure

A continuum phase field model for fracture

A variational free-discontinuity formulation of brittle fracture was given by Francfortand Marigo [1], where the total energy is minimized with respect to the crackgeometry and the displacement field simultaneously. The entire evolution of cracksincluding their initiation and branching is determined by this minimization principlerequiring no further criterion. However, a direct numerical discretization of themodel faces considerable difficulties as the displacement field is discontinuous inthe presence of cracks.

A Continuum Phase Field Model for Fracture

On degradation functions in phase field fracture models

Numerical methods that are able to predict the failure of technical structures due to fracture are important in many engineering applications. One of these approaches, the so-called phase field method, represents cracks by means of an additional continuous field variable. This strategy avoids some of the main drawbacks of a sharp interface description of cracks. For example, it is not necessary to track or model crack faces explicitly, which allows a simple algorithmic treatment. The phase field model for brittle fracture presented in Kuhn and Muller (Eng Fract Mech 77(18):3625---3634, 2010) assumes quasi-static loading conditions. However dynamic effects have a great impact on the crack growth in many practical applications. Therefore this investigation presents an extension of the quasi-static phase field model for fracture from Kuhn and Muller (Eng Fract Mech 77(18):3625---3634, 2010) to the dynamic case. First of all Hamilton's principle is applied to derive a coupled set of Euler-Lagrange equations that govern the mechanical behaviour of the body as well as the crack growth. Subsequently the model is implemented in a finite element scheme which allows to solve several test problems numerically. The numerical examples illustrate the capabilities of the developed approach to dynamic fracture in brittle materials.

Charlotte Kuhn

Papers

A continuum phase field model for fracture

A Continuum Phase Field Model for Fracture

On degradation functions in phase field fracture models

Phase field approximation of dynamic brittle fracture

On phase field modeling of ductile fracture