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.