Phase field models for thermal fracturing and their variational structures

TL;DR

This paper explores phase field models for thermal fracturing, analyzing their variational structures, and demonstrates how thermal stress influences crack propagation speed and shape through numerical experiments.

Contribution

It introduces two coupled phase field models for thermal fracturing with variational structures, extending the understanding of thermoelastic effects on crack dynamics.

Findings

Thermal stress accelerates crack propagation.

Lowest temperature occurs near the crack tip.

Thermal coupling influences crack shape and speed.

Abstract

It is often observed that thermal stress enhances crack propagation in materials, and conversely, crack propagation can contribute to temperature shifts in materials. In this study, we first consider the thermoelasticity model proposed by M. A. Biot (1956) and study its energy dissipation property. The Biot thermoelasticity model takes into account the following effects. Thermal expansion and contraction are caused by temperature changes, and conversely, temperatures decrease in expanding areas but increase in contracting areas. In addition, we examine its thermomechanical properties through several numerical examples and observe that the stress near a singular point is enhanced by the thermoelastic effect. In the second part, we propose two crack propagation models under thermal stress by coupling a phase field model for crack propagation and the Biot thermoelasticity model and show their variational structures. In our numerical experiments, we investigate how thermal coupling affects the crack speed and shape. In particular, we observe that the lowest temperature appears near the crack tip, and the crack propagation is accelerated by the enhanced thermal stress.