Phase‐Field Simulations of Cracks under Dynamic Loading

Phase‐field fracture simulations have been established to simulate crack propagation in fracture mechanics. This contribution sets the focus on different driving forces for crack growth and on the simulation of waves propagating along the fractured interfaces. Typically, phase‐field methods for brittle fracture employ a variational framework which has been proven to converge to Griffith’ classical model. This approach, however, has limits in the pressure dominated regime. For that reason we propose ad‐hoc driving forces which are motivated physically using general fracture mechanic concepts. Additionally we investigate the effect of the phase‐field modeled cracks and interfaces on the propagation of the arising waves. The accuracy and the robustness of the simulation method will be demonstrated by numerical examples.