Variational modeling of thermomechanical fracture and anisotropic frictional mortar contact problems with adhesion

Phase-field formulations to fracture and sophisticated mortar contact formulations are well established techniques nowadays. For a wide range of applications, these two variationally consistent approaches could already demonstrate their superiority compared with more traditional methods in terms of generality, performance and accuracy. In the present contribution we combine both methodologies in a unified computational framework to deal with large deformation thermo-fracture mechanical contact problems. In particular, a temperature dependent model for the critical fracture energy density as well as a phase-field dependent model for the heat conduction are taken into account along with a temperature dependent contact model. To be specific, an adhesive anisotropic friction model is considered for the contact in tangential direction, whereas an exponential adhesion model is applied for the normal contact definition. These models are incorporated within the thermal phase-field approach in a thermodynamically consistent formulation. Eventually, a variety of representative numerical examples demonstrates the capabilities of this novel framework.