Adaptive mesh refinement and cycle jumps for phase-field fatigue fracture modeling

A phase-field approach was used in order to model the complex mechanisms of fatigue crack nu-cleation and growth. This popular method enables a flexible framework that recovers accurately expected crack patterns. However, it usually suffers from several efficiency drawbacks, such as the need for a very fine mesh, and the heavy computational cost associated with the cycle by cycle approach. For this reason, we put forward the coupling of adaptive mesh refinement and cycle jumps, to significantly accelerate computing time, at a given level of accuracy. Several numerical examples were studied to showcase the abilities of the proposed coupling and some qualitative numerical/experimental comparisons were made. In the end, the proposed coupling was able to recover non accelerated results with significant computing gains.

Automated summary

A phase-field approach was used to model fatigue crack nu-cleation and growth, recovering expected crack patterns accurately. However, it suffers from efficiency drawbacks, such as the need for a fine mesh and heavy computational cost. To address this, a coupling of adaptive mesh refinement and cycle jumps was proposed to significantly accelerate computing time. Numerical examples and comparisons were made to demonstrate the effectiveness of the coupling, which resulted in significant computing gains while recovering non accelerated results.