Phase field modeling of dynamic fracture in elastoplastic composites with interfacial debonding

In this work, we extend a phase field formulation for dynamic ductile fracture to consider interfacial debonding in elastoplastic composites. The interfacial weak zone is created through a regularization of the sharp interfaces, and the singular strain part along the interfaces is approximated by using a Taylor expansion. Then, a strain density depending on the displacement jump related to matrix/inclusions decohesion is added to the total energy to take into account interfacial debonding. The coupling problems (displacement, plasticity and damage problems) are derived within the variational framework and a staggered iterative algorithmic procedure is described to solve the coupling problems. Numerical examples demonstrate that this method can handle the initiation, propagation, and interaction between bulk dynamic fracture and interface cracks, as well as the anisotropic behavior in the complex microstructure of elastic–plastic composite materials. It also indicates that this model is convergent in terms of mesh refinement. •A numerical framework for dynamic crack propagation in elastoplastic composites interacting with interfacial debonding is proposed.•An associated phase field framework is developed, and the convergence with respect to the mesh is verified.•The framework is applicable to 3D elastoplastic composite microstructures obtained from X-ray computed tomography (XRCT) technique.