A combined XFEM phase-field computational model for crack growth without remeshing

This paper presents an adaptive strategy for phase-field simulations with transition to fracture. The phase-field equations are solved only in small subdomains around crack tips to determine propagation, while an extended finite element method (XFEM) discretization is used in the rest of the domain to represent sharp cracks, enabling to use a coarser discretization and therefore reducing the computational cost. Crack-tip subdomains move as cracks propagate in a fully automatic process. The same mesh is used during all the simulation, with an h-refined approximation in the elements in the crack-tip subdomains. Continuity of the displacement between the refined subdomains and the XFEM region is imposed in weak form via Nitsche’s method. The robustness of the strategy is shown for some numerical examples in 2D and 3D, including branching and coalescence tests.