Nonlinear dynamic fracture problems with polynomial and strain-limiting constitutive relations

TL;DR

This paper develops a mathematical framework for nonlinear dynamic fracture problems using phase-field approximation, focusing on strain-limiting materials and proving existence of solutions under complex constitutive relations.

Contribution

It extends phase-field fracture models to include nonlinear, strain-limiting constitutive relations with rigorous existence proofs for solutions.

Findings

Proved existence of long-time, large-data weak solutions in any spatial dimension.

Established energy-dissipation inequalities and equalities for the model.

Analyzed strain-limiting behavior with p=1 in nonlinear constitutive relations.

Abstract

We extend the framework of dynamic fracture problems with a phase-field approximation to the case of a nonlinear constitutive relation between the Cauchy stress tensor $ \mathbb{T} $, linearised strain $ \boldsymbol{\epsilon}(\mathbf{u}) $ and strain rate $ \boldsymbol{\epsilon}(\mathbf{u}_t ) $. The relationship takes the form $ \boldsymbol{\epsilon}(\mathbf{u}_t) + \alpha\boldsymbol{\epsilon}(\mathbf{u}) = F(\mathbb{T}) $ where $ F $ satisfies certain $p$-growth conditions. We take particular care to study the case $p=1$ of a `strain-limiting' solid, that is, one in which the strain is bounded {\it a priori}. We prove the existence of long-time, large-data weak solutions of a balance law coupled with a minimisation problem for the phase-field function and an energy-dissipation inequality, in any number $ d$ of spatial dimensions. In the case of Dirichlet boundary conditions, we also prove the satisfaction of an energy-dissipation equality.