An efficient phase-field model of shear fractures using deviatoric stress split

TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient phase-field model for shear fractures that employs deviatoric stress decomposition, enabling accurate simulation of complex failure modes in geomechanics with notable performance improvements.

Contribution

The novel model integrates deviatoric stress split with the phase-field approach, allowing for general Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria in three dimensions, which enhances the simulation of shear fractures.

Findings

Successfully captures conjugate failure modes under biaxial compression

Accurately models slope stability problems

Demonstrates remarkable performance on benchmark tests

Abstract

We propose a phase-field model of shear fractures using the deviatoric stress decomposition (DSD). This choice allows us to use general three-dimensional Mohr-Coulomb's (MC) failure function for formulating the relations and evaluating peak and residual stresses. We apply the model to a few benchmark problems of shear fracture and strain localization and report remarkable performance. Our model is able to capture conjugate failure modes under biaxial compression test and for the slope stability problem, a challenging task for most models of geomechanics.