Phase-field model of brittle fracture in Reissner–Mindlin plates and shells

Abstract

In this paper, a phase-field model is presented for the description of brittle fracture in a Reissner–Mindlin plate and shell formulation. The shell kinematics as well as the phase-field variable are described on the midsurface of the structure. Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline basis functions are used for the discretization of both the displacement/rotations and the phase-field. The spectral decomposition for the tension–compression split is applied on the total strain tensor, which varies through the thickness. Thus, the plane stress condition has to be enforced numerically. Various numerical examples are presented in order to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the method and a detailed comparison to existing formulations is performed. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.