An open-source Abaqus implementation of the phase-field method to study the effect of plasticity on the instantaneous fracture toughness in dynamic crack propagation

Brittle and ductile dynamic fracture in solids is a complex mechanical phenomenon which attracted much attention from both engineers and scientists due to its technological interests. Modeling cracks in dynamic cases based on a discontinuous description is difficult because it needs additional criteria for branching and widening. Due to the very short time scales and the spatial complexity of the dynamic problem, its experimental analysis is still very difficult. Therefore, researchers still have to rely on numerical simulations to find a deeper explanation for many observed phenomena. This study is set out to investigate the effect of plasticity on dynamic fracture propagation. On the other hand, the diffuse phase-field formulation makes it possible to initiate, propagate, arrest or even branch cracks while satisfying the basic principles of thermodynamics. An implicit, staggered elastoplastic version of the phase-field approach was implemented in the commercial finite element code Abaqus through the UEL option. By means of simple examples we show that localized ductile deformations first increase both resistance and toughness. Then, after a maximum value, the resistance starts to decrease with a significant increment in energy dissipation. By favoring shear deformation over tensile failure the fracture pattern changes. First the branching disappears, then the crack propagation angle changes and becomes a shear band. Finally, we observed the increment of the instantaneous dynamic stress intensity factor during the acceleration stage of the crack without introducing a rate dependent critical fracture energy. We explained this phenomenon with the increasing roughness of the fracture surface. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.