An enriched cohesive zone model for delamination in brittle interfaces

Application of standard cohesive zone models in a finite element framework to simulate delamination in brittle interfaces may trigger non‐smooth load–displacement responses that lead to the failure of iterative solution procedures. This non‐smoothness is an artifact of the discretization; and hence it can be avoided by sufficiently refining the mesh leading to unacceptably high computational costs and a low efficiency and robustness. In this paper, a process‐driven hierarchical extension is proposed to enrich the separation approximation in the process zone of a cohesive crack. Some numerical examples show that instead of mesh refinement, a more efficient enriched formulation can be used to prevent a non‐smooth solution. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.