Adaptive coupling between damage mechanics and peridynamics: a route for objective simulation of material degradation up to complete failure

The objective (mesh-independent) simulation of evolving discontinuities, such as cracks, remains a challenge. Current techniques are highly complex or involve intractable computational costs, making simulations up to complete failure difficult. We propose a framework as a new route toward solving this problem that adaptively couples local-continuum damage mechanics with peridynamics to objectively simulate all the steps that lead to material failure: damage nucleation, crack formation and propagation. Local-continuum damage mechanics successfully describes the degradation related to dispersed microdefects before the formation of a macrocrack. However, when damage localizes, it suffers spurious mesh dependency, making the simulation of macrocracks challenging. On the other hand, the peridynamic theory is promising for the simulation of fractures, as it naturally allows discontinuities in the displacement field. Here, we present a hybrid local-continuum damage/peridynamic model. Local-continuum damage mechanics is used to describe “volume” damage before localization. Once localization is detected at a point, the remaining part of the energy is dissipated through an adaptive peridynamic model capable of the transition to a “surface” degradation, typically a crack. We believe that this framework, which actually mimics the real physical process of crack formation, is the first bridge between continuum damage theories and peridynamics. Two-dimensional numerical examples are used to illustrate that an objective simulation of material failure can be achieved by this method.