# A Revised Abaqus® Procedure for Fracture Path Simulation Based on the Material Effort Criterion

## TL;DR

This paper introduces an improved method for simulating crack propagation in materials using Abaqus® and X-FEM, resulting in more accurate fracture paths.

## Contribution

A revised Abaqus® procedure using the material effort criterion for more accurate fracture path simulation.

## Key findings

- Five material failure criteria were implemented in Abaqus® using X-FEM for fracture simulation.
- The improved procedure produced crack paths closer to real-world observations than standard Abaqus® subroutines.

## Abstract

This paper presents the results of computer simulations of fracture in three laboratory tests: the three-point bending of a notched beam cut from sandstone, the pull-out test of a self-undercutting anchor fixed in sandstone, and the pull-out test of a bar embedded in concrete. Five material failure criteria were used: Rankine, Coulomb–Mohr, Drucker–Prager, Ottosen–Podgórski, and Hoek–Brown. These criteria were implemented in the Abaqus® FEA system to work with the crack propagation modeling method—extended finite element method (X-FEM). All criteria yielded similar force–displacement relationships and similar crack path shapes. The improved procedure gives significantly better, close-to-real crack propagation paths than can be obtained using the standard subroutines built into the Abaqus® system.