Fracture mechanics is a field of mechanics that focuses on the behaviour of materials when they break or fail under external forces. It involves understanding the initiation and expansion of cracks in materials and predicting their behaviour under different loading conditions. One tool used in this study is the phase field method, which simulates the development of cracks in materials by following the growth and spread of the crack.
This project involves researching the primary features of phase field implementation, as well as simulating and analyzing various benchmark problems from the literature. Additionally, we will implement a method for calculating total energies in order to examine material fracture from the perspective of surface and strain energy. A 3D simulation of a 3D printed specimen will be conducted, in which different fracture methods will be examined.