Speaker
Description
A common approach to simulate fracture propagation is by the means of phase field methods, in which the discrete fracture is replaced by a continuous phase-field variable. The phase-field variable then indicates the material state. Together with the material behavior, it can be obtained by the numerical solution of partial differential equations. This replacement however introduces additional parameters, which require additional effort in order to be chosen appropriately.
Instead of interpreting the problem of fracture propagation as an optimization problem with respect to the phase-field, alternative optimization algorithms can also be employed, e.g., shape or topology optimization. Additional challenges arise when considering the spectral decomposition of the strain tensor to exclude unphysical fracture paths.
In the first part of the talk, we present the optimization problem to be solved. In the second part, we then employ a shape optimization approach, address possible additional challenges in doing so, and solve the optimization problem numerically.
