Space-time adaptive ADER discontinuous Galerkin schemes for nonlinear hyperelasticity with material failure

We are concerned with the numerical solution of a unified first order hyperbolic formulation of continuum mechanics that goes back to the work of Godunov, Peshkov and Romenski [64], [67], [96] (GPR model) and which is an extension of nonlinear hyperelasticity that is able to describe simultaneously nonlinear elasto-plastic solids at large strain, as well as viscous and ideal fluids. The proposed governing PDE system also contains the effect of heat conduction and can be shown to be symmetric and thermodynamically compatible, as it obeys the first and second law of thermodynamics.

In this paper we extend the GPR model to the simulation of nonlinear dynamic rupture processes, which can be achieved by adding an additional scalar to the governing PDE system. This extra parameter describes the material damage and is governed by an advection-reaction equation, where the stiff and highly nonlinear reaction mechanisms depend on the ratio of the local equivalent stress to the yield stress of the material. The stiff reaction mechanisms are integrated in time via an efficient exponential time integrator. Due to the multiple spatial and temporal scales involved in the problem of crack generation and propagation, the model is solved on space–time adaptive Cartesian meshes using high order accurate discontinuous Galerkin finite element schemes endowed with an a posteriori subcell finite volume limiter.

A key feature of our new model is the use of a twofold diffuse interface approach that allows the cracks to form anywhere and at any time, independently of the chosen computational grid, which is simply adaptive Cartesian (AMR). This is substantially different from many fracture modeling approaches that need to resolve discontinuities explicitly, such as for example dynamic shear rupture models used in computational seismology, where the geometry of the rupture fault needs to prescribed a priori. We furthermore make use of a scalar volume fraction function α that indicates whether a given spatial point is inside the solid () or outside (), thus allowing the description of solids of arbitrarily complex shape.

We show extensive numerical comparisons with experimental results for stress-strain diagrams of different real materials and for the generation and propagation of fracture in rocks and pyrex glass at low and high velocities. Overall, a very good agreement between numerical simulations and experiments is obtained. The proposed model is also naturally able to describe material fatigue.