Abstract:
A computationally affordable modeling of dynamic fracture phenomena is performed in this study by using strain injection
techniques and Finite Elements with Embedded strong discontinuities (E-FEM). In the present research, classical strain localization
and strong discontinuity approaches are considered by injecting discontinuous strain and displacement modes in the finite element
formulation without an increase of the total number of degrees of freedom. Following the Continuum Strong Discontinuity
Approach (CSDA), stress–strain constitutive laws can be employed in the context of fracture phenomena and, therefore, the
methodology remains applicable to a wide number of continuum mechanics models. The position and orientation of the
displacement discontinuity is obtained through the solution of a crack propagation problem, i.e. the crack path field, based on
the distribution of localized strains. The combination of the above mentioned approaches is envisaged to avoid stress-locking and
directional mesh bias phenomena.
Dynamic simulations are performed increasing the loading rate up to the appearance of crack branching, and the variation in
terms of failure modes is investigated as well as the influence of the strain injection together with the crack path field algorithm.
Objectivity of the presented methodology with respect to the spatial and temporal discretization is analyzed in terms of the
dissipated energy during the fracture process. The dissipation at the onset of branching is studied for different
