Fig. The load-displacement curve
for a single-edge notched specimen for different values of n
5.5 Asymmetrically notched
specimen
The asymmetrically notched specimen illustrated in Table 3-IV. The top
edge is restrained horizontally and displaced vertically, whereas the
bottom edge is fixed. The material parameters are those of Material IV
in Table 1. The spatial discretization of the model comprises 4857
quadrilateral elements, with refinement in the central region between
the notches where the crack is expected to form.
The evolution of the crack phase-fields is provided in Fig.7 for the
proposed model. The developed model is able to predict crack initiation
at the notches and take the right pattern between them. The initial
cracks propagate within the plastic strain localization band and
eventually merge leading to complete failure.