A DG/CR discretization for the variational phase-field approach to fracture

Variational phase-field models of fracture are widely used to simulate nucleation and propagation of cracks in brittle materials. They are based on the approximation of the solutions of free-discontinuity fracture energy by two smooth function: a displacement and a damage field. Their numerical implementation is typically based on the discretization of both fields by nodal \(\mathbb{P}^1\) Lagrange finite elements. In this article, we propose a nonconforming approximation by discontinuous elements for the displacement and nonconforming elements, whose gradient is more isotropic, for the damage. The handling of the nonconformity is derived from that of heterogeneous diffusion problems. We illustrate the robustness and versatility of the proposed method through series of examples.