A thermo-mechanical damage model for thermal crack propagation in brittle materials

authored by: Cancan Su, Dechun Lu, Xiaoying Zhuang, Timon Rabczuk, Xin Zhou, Xiuli Du
Abstract: To address the challenge of modelling intricate crack patterns in brittle materials, this study introduces a novel damage framework with thermo-mechanical coupling. By integrating thermal effects within a unified energy variational framework, the model incorporates an innovative damage variable that explicitly accounts for thermal deformation and accurately characterises the topology of thermal cracks. The explicit thermo-damage variable and governing equations are directly derived from the variational functional, enabling efficient resolution of thermal fracture problems by focusing solely on displacement and temperature fields. Furthermore, the proposed framework demonstrates the potential for extension to other multi-field coupled fracture problems driven by environmentally induced strain. A series of simulations, including purely mechanical as well as 2D and 3D thermo-mechanical scenarios, validate the model's capability to effectively capture intricate crack behaviours.
Organisation(s): Institute of Photonics
External Organisation(s): Beijing University of Technology
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Tsinghua University
Type: Article
Journal: Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics
Volume: 138
No. of pages: 23
ISSN: 0167-8442
Publication date: 08.2025
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General Materials Science, Condensed Matter Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tafmec.2025.104912 (Access: Closed)
: Details in the research portal "Research@Leibniz University"

BibTeX

@article{b17b1b659f7a429c97837ba2b45ea019,
title = "A thermo-mechanical damage model for thermal crack propagation in brittle materials",
abstract = "To address the challenge of modelling intricate crack patterns in brittle materials, this study introduces a novel damage framework with thermo-mechanical coupling. By integrating thermal effects within a unified energy variational framework, the model incorporates an innovative damage variable that explicitly accounts for thermal deformation and accurately characterises the topology of thermal cracks. The explicit thermo-damage variable and governing equations are directly derived from the variational functional, enabling efficient resolution of thermal fracture problems by focusing solely on displacement and temperature fields. Furthermore, the proposed framework demonstrates the potential for extension to other multi-field coupled fracture problems driven by environmentally induced strain. A series of simulations, including purely mechanical as well as 2D and 3D thermo-mechanical scenarios, validate the model's capability to effectively capture intricate crack behaviours.",
keywords = "Crack propagation, Damage, Fracture, Multi-field, Thermo-mechanical coupling",
author = "Cancan Su and Dechun Lu and Xiaoying Zhuang and Timon Rabczuk and Xin Zhou and Xiuli Du",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2025",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1016/j.tafmec.2025.104912",
language = "English",
volume = "138",
journal = "Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics",
issn = "0167-8442",
publisher = "Elsevier BV",
}

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