A phase-field study of crack propagation and branching in functionally graded materials using explicit dynamics

Understanding dynamic crack branching and propagation under impact conditions in Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) is important as engineering components are often subjected to impact loads. Investigation of crack paths may lead to better material and structure designs. Recently, Phase-Field Fracture (PFF) modeling techniques are gaining importance and are shown to provide good predictions of crack propagation behavior under dynamic conditions. On the other hand, phase-field modeling of cracks is often computationally intensive due to the nonlinear constitutive relations as well as the smaller time steps required to capture the crack dynamics. With the inception of explicit time integration schemes, it has been preferred in solving many complex problems in engineering analysis due to its fast computation time. In the present study, crack propagation and branching in FGMs using phase-field fracture modeling with explicit dynamics is proposed. Various case studies are considered and studied. The effect of gradation of the material properties and loading conditions are studied and reported.