CMN 2026

Anisotropy in Phase-Field Fracture via Homogenized Orientation-Dependent Degradation

  • Villalta, Gerard (CIMNE/UPC)
  • Ferrer, Alex (CIMNE/UPC)
  • Otero, Fermin (CIMNE/UPC)

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Phase-field approaches are now widely used to model fracture processes, as they provide a unified variational setting in which cracks can nucleate and evolve in accordance with Griffith’s energy balance. Over time, numerous model variants have been introduced, distinguished primarily by the specific expressions used to describe material degradation and fracture energy dissipation. This diversity of formulations underscores the continued pursuit of improved predictive capability and clearer physical interpretation within phase-field fracture modeling. Earlier studies introduced a class of multiscale phase-field models for brittle fracture, obtained by recasting the formulation around a degradation function derived from the homogenization of evolving microstructures containing voids. Building on this foundation, the present work broadens the framework by incorporating additional microstructural descriptors capable of capturing more intricate void shapes as well as their preferential orientations. This extended description allows anisotropic fracture behavior to emerge directly from the degradation function itself, without the need to alter the dissipation formulation or introduce supplementary damage variables, as is commonly done in alternative phase-field models. By explicitly accounting for orientation effects at the microscale, the proposed approach improves the accuracy of predicted macroscopic crack trajectories while permitting coarser discretizations, thereby significantly lowering the computational cost of phase-field fracture simulations.