Simulation of the Damage Process in Quasi-Brittle Materials by a Modified Finite Element Method Using the Consistent Embedded Discontinuity Formulation

This paper investigates the variational finite element formulation and its numerical implementation of the damage evolution in solids, using a new discrete embedded discontinuity approach. For this purpose, the kinematically optimal symmetric (KOS) formulation, which guarantees kinematics, is consistently derived. In this formulation, rigid body motion of the parts in which the element is divided is obtained. To guarantee equilibrium at the discontinuity surfaces, the length of the discontinuity is introduced in the numerical implementation at elemental level. To illustrate and validate this approach, two examples, involving mode-I failure, are presented. Numerical results are compared with those reported from experimental tests. The presented discontinuity formulation shows a robust finite element method to simulate the damage evolution processes in quasi-brittle materials, without modifying the mesh topology when cohesive cracks propagate.