A coupled finite element-meshfree smoothed point interpolation method for phase-field modelling

Resumo

The present work investigates the coupling between the finite element method (FEM) and smoothed
point interpolation methods (SPIM) for the solution of crack propagation problems. The region of the model
where the crack propagates is previously discretised by the SPIM method and the rest of the domain is represented

by the FEM. The phase-field model is adopted as a constitutive model to simulate the degradation of the mate-
rial during the analysis. In this model, the crack is considered as a diffuse crack where a length scale parameter

controls the size of the diffusive region and the phase field value indicates the integrity of the material. The compu-
tational implementations were performed in the INSANE (INteractive Structural ANalysis Environment) system,

developed at the Department of Structural Engineering of the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Numerical sim-
ulations are performed using different smoothing domains and support nodes selection strategies. The results of

simulations are compared with the standard finite element method in the complete domain.