A hybrid local/nonlocal continuum mechanics modeling and simulation of fracture in brittle materials

Classical continuum mechanics which leads to a local continuum model, encounters challenges when the discontinuity appears, while peridynamics that falls into the category of nonlocal continuum mechanics suffers from a high computational cost. A hybrid model coupling classical continuum mechanics with peridynamics can avoid both disadvantages. This paper describes the hybrid model and its adaptive coupling approach which dynamically updates the coupling domains according to crack propagations for brittle materials. Then this hybrid local/nonlocal continuum model is applied to fracture simulation. Some numerical examples like a plate with a hole, Brazilian disk, notched plate and beam, are performed for verification and validation. In addition, a peridynamic software is introduced, which was recently developed for the simulation of the hybrid local/nonlocal continuum model.