Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

A new approach is developed for computational modelling of microstructure evolution problems. The approach combines the phase-field method with the recently-developed laminated element technique (LET) which is a simple and efficient method to model weak discontinuities using non-conforming finite-element meshes. The essence of LET is in treating the elements that are cut by an interface as simple laminates of the two phases, and this idea is here extended to propagating interfaces so that the volume fraction of the phases and the lamination orientation vary accordingly. In the proposed LET-PF approach, the phase-field variable (order parameter), which is governed by an evolution equation of the Ginzburg–Landau type, plays the role of a level-set function that implicitly defines the position of the (sharp) interface. The mechanical equilibrium subproblem is then solved using the semisharp LET technique. Performance of LET-PF is illustrated by numerical examples. In particular, it is shown that, for the problems studied, LET-PF exhibits higher accuracy than the conventional phase-field method so that, for instance, qualitatively correct results can be obtained using a significantly coarser mesh, and thus at a lower computational cost.

Microstructure evolution,Interfaces,Laminate,Phase-field method,Finite element method

When modelling discontinuities (interfaces) using the finite element method, the standard approach is to use a conforming finite-element mesh in which the mesh matches the interfaces. However, this natural approach can prove cumbersome if the geometry is complex, in particular in 3D. In this work, we develop an efficient technique for a non-conforming finite-element treatment of weak discontinuities by using laminated microstructures. The approach is inspired by the so-called composite voxel technique that has been developed for FFT-based spectral solvers in computational homogenization. The idea behind the method is rather simple. Each finite element that is cut by an interface is treated as a simple laminate with the volume fraction of the phases and the lamination orientation determined in terms of the actual geometrical arrangement of the interface within the element. The approach is illustrated by several computational examples relevant to the micromechanics of heterogeneous materials. Elastic and elastic-plastic materials at small and finite strain are considered in the examples. The performance of the proposed method is compared to two alternative, simple methods showing that the new approach is in most cases superior to them while maintaining the simplicity.

Finite element method,Interface,Weak discontinuity,Laminate,Homogenization,Elasticity,Plasticity

The study considers the bearing capacity of eccentrically loaded strip footing on spatially variable, purely cohesive soil. The problem is solved using the random finite element method. The anisotropic random field of cohesion is generated using the Fourier series method, and individual problems within performed Monte Carlo simulations (MCSs) are solved using the Abaqus finite element code. The analysis includes eight different variants of the fluctuation scales and six values of load eccentricity. For each of these 48 cases, 1000 MCSs are performed and the probabilistic characteristics of the obtained values are calculated. The results of the analysis indicate that the mean value of the bearing capacity decreases linearly with eccentricity, which is consistent with Meyerhof's theory. However, the decrease in standard deviation and increase in the coefficient of variation of the bearing capacity observed are non-linear, which is particularly evident for small eccentricities. For one chosen variant of fluctuation scales, a reliability analysis investigating the influence of eccentricity on reliability index is performed. The results of the analysis conducted show that the value of the reliability index can be significantly influenced even by small eccentricities. This indicates the need to consider at least random eccentricities in future studies regarding probabilistic modelling of foundation bearing capacity.

random field, scale of fluctuation, eccentric load, cohesive soil, probabilistic analysis