A hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin phase-field model for brittle fracture

Abstract

Phase-field models for brittle fracture consider smeared representations of cracks, which are described by a continuous field that varies abruptly in the transition zone between unbroken and broken states. Computationally, meshes have to be fine locally near the crack to capture the solution. We present an HDG formulation for a quasi-static phase-field model, based on a staggered approach to solve the system. The use of HDG for this model is motivated by the suitability of the method for spatial adaptivity.