Speaker
Description
The phase-field approach to fracture is a widely recognized effective method for simulating crack initiation and propagation. The standard phase-field method is based on the crack propagation model formulated by Francfort and Marigo (1998), which is based on energy minimization and was later regularized by Bourdin et al. (2000). This study compares simple experiments with phase-field simulations. In the experiments, the critical force and crack path are affected by uncertainties. To evaluate such uncertainties, Monte-Carlo simulations are calculated with a simplified setup. Furthermore, a series of numerical examples demonstrate the effects of non-perfect experimental conditions. On the numerical side, deterministic phase-field fracture simulations are performed for the complete setup, and the influence of model uncertainties, like the non-local length parameter and the crack driving energy formulation, are evaluated. In general, we found that the uncertainties of straightforward phase-field fracture simulations are in the same order of magnitude as the uncertainties of the experiment.
