ADAPTIVE QUASICONTINUUM SIMULATION OF ELASTIC-BRITTLE DISORDERED LATTICES

Abstract

The quasicontinuum (QC) method is a computational technique that can efficiently handle atomistic lattices by combining continuum and atomistic approaches. In this work, the QC method is combined with an adaptive algorithm, to obtain correct predictions of crack trajectories in failure simulations. Numerical simulations of crack propagation in elastic-brittle disordered lattices are performed for a two-dimensional example. The obtained results are compared with the fully resolved particle model. It is shown that the adaptive QC simulation provides a significant reduction of the computational demand. At the same time, the macroscopic crack trajectories and the shape of the force-displacement diagram are very well captured.

Keywords

• quasicontinuum method, adaptive crack propagation, elastic-brittle lattice model