Discontinuous Galerkin/extrinsic cohesive zone modeling: Implementation caveats and applications in computational fracture mechanics

Implementation of the hybrid discontinuous Galerkin/cohesive zone model method, which is a (volumetric) locking free single field yet highly scalable method for nonlinear fracture mechanics problems, is presented. In this method cohesive interface elements are placed at element surfaces prior to the simulation of which artificial compliance is removed by a discontinuous Galerkin formulation. The formulation is switched to a standard extrinsic cohesive crack model upon satisfaction of a failure criterion. We provide details on the computation of the internal force vector and the tangent stiffness matrix. Examples that consist of (in) compressible elasticity, microcracking of fiber reinforced composite materials and dynamic fracture are provided. This paper is addressed to researchers who would like to have a quick working implementation of the discontinuous Galerkin/cohesive zone model method.