Error estimation and adaptivity for discontinuous failure

Discontinuous failure is simulated via the introduction of a geometrical discontinuity. The cohesive zone is modelled via the use of the partition-of-unity property of the finite element interpolation. By this approach, a crack can pass through the elements without any restriction to the underlying mesh. Despite such a feature, it has been confirmed that a sufficiently fine mesh discretization still needs to be ensured in order to obtain a correct crack path and mechanical response. The p-adaptive scheme, driven by error in an energy norm measure or a goal-oriented measure, has been examined due to its implementational simplicity. The results have shown that, if considering only increasing the polynomial degree, the p-approach can greatly improve the results. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.