Numerical research on extension of an ubiquitiformal crack in quasi-brittle material

A numerical simulation on the propagation of an ubiquitiformal crack in quasi-brittle material is carried out by using the ABAQUS software. The heterogeneity of material properties is characterized by Weibull distribution, and the XFEM-based cohesive segments model is used to describe the crack propagation. Then, for the first time, the ubiquitiformal profile of a fracture surface is obtained. The complexity of the fractured profile is also calculated by using the box counting dimension. The numerical results are in good agreement with previous experimental data. Furthermore, it is found that there exists a positive correlation between the complexity and the fracture energy of materials, which was observed experimentally.