Current Practice in Computational Fracture Mechanics: a Software Editor's Point of View Based on Test Cases

Although XFEM presents clear advantages for the end-user, especially at the modeling level, its implementation in a commercial code is not so easy. First it requires the development of new elements and the handling of non-familiar notions, such as the level-sets and the enriched functions supported by additional degrees of freedom. Then, some capabilities available with the "old-fashioned" crack boxes are not mature yet in XFEM, e.g., the contact between the crack lips to some extent and plasticity at the crack front. It results that the classic FEM with crack boxes is still in use and must live together with XFEM and its actual limitations. Moreover, this former method should still be improved due to the end-users’ pressure for a simplification in the use of classic fracture mechanics tools.