A

u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
Numerical analysis of crack propagation in
concrete structures using X-FEM
G unther Meschke, Peter Dumstorff, Wagner
Fleming & Stefan Jox
Paper appeared in: Computational modelling of
concrete structures, Meschke, G. and deBorst, R. and
Mang, H.A. and Bicanic, N.(Eds.) A.A. Balkema,
Leidon/London/New York/Philadelphia/Singapore,
pp.157166, 2006,
1
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
Numerical analysis of crack propagation in concrete structures using X-FEM
G unther Meschke, Peter Dumstorff, Wagner Fleming & Stefan Jox
Institute for Structural Mechanics, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
ABSTRACT:
Numerical analyses of structures made of quasi-brittle materials such as concrete or cement paste require robust
models for the opening and propagation of cracks which represent the discontinuous character of the fracture
process and adequately consider cohesive forces acting within the fracture process zone. In recent years, the
Extended Finite Element Method has obtained considerable attention in the scientic community as a capable
tool to model cracks as propagating discontinuities within the structure independent of its discretization. This
paper contains a precis of recent achievements made at the Institute for Structural Mechanics at Ruhr University
Bochum with regards to the applicability of this method in various loading conditions. Special attention is
paid to the inuence of different crack growth criteria and of the chosen cohesive law on the numerical results
and the stability of the analysis. Two local and two global criteria including an averaged stress criterion, a
maximum circumferential stress criterion based on the Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics, a global tracking
criterion proposed by (Oliver et al. 2002; Oliver et al. 2004) and an energy based X-FEM formulation recently
proposed in (Dumstorff and Meschke 2005a; Meschke and Dumstorff 2005) are investigated. Representative
numerical benchmark examples, characterized by Mode-I dominant fracture as well as by Mixed-Mode fracture,
are used to study the performance and the robustness of the different crack propagation criteria. In addition to
mechanical analyses, the formulation of X-FEM based fracture analyses of concrete structures considering the
transport of moisture is outlined in the last part of the paper.
1 Introduction
Cracking in quasi-brittle materials such as cement
paste, brickwork or concrete is characterized by
the formation of microcracks which eventually coa-
lesce and form propagating macrocracks. The real-
istic modeling of the process of crack opening and
propagation is a prerequisite for reliable prognoses of
the safety and the durability of concrete, reinforced
concrete and masonry structures. Numerical model-
ing of cracks and structural analysis of cracked struc-
tures dates back to the early 1970s. While up to
the mid of the 1990s, the focus of research in com-
putational failure analysis was laid on the develop-
ment of continuum-based models, (see, e.g., (de Borst
2002; Jir asek and Ba zant 2002) for a review), since
the mid of the 1990s approaches which allow for the
representation of cracks as embedded discontinuities
within nite elements. These formulations can be cat-
egorized into element-based formulations, generally
denoted as Embedded Crack Models (see (Simo et al.
1993; Oliver 1996; Jira sek and Zimmermann 2001;
Armero and Garikipati 1996; Mosler and Meschke
2003), among others) and nodal-based formulations
such as the Extended Element Method (X-FEM) (see
(Mo es et al. 1999; Mo es and Belytschko 2002; Wells
and Sluys 2001)). For a comparative assessment of
both approaches we refer to (Jira sek and Belytschko
2002; Dumstorff et al. 2003). With the exception of
the rotating crack formulation of the Strong Dis-
continuity Approach (Mosler and Meschke 2003), the
topology of crack segments is held xed once they are
signaled to open. Furthermore in the framework of the
Extended Finite Element Method crack path continu-
ity is required. Hence, the correct prediction of the
direction of new crack segments is crucial for the re-
liability as well as for the robustness of the numerical
analysis. If the predicted propagation direction is in-
correct, locking occurs, which generally leads to un-
reasonable results and eventually may cause failure of
the analysis.
In the paper, various ingredients of X-FEM based
analyses of cohesive crack propagation in cementi-
tious materials are discussed.
The rst part of the paper is concerned with the the
numerical assessment of four different crack propa-
gation criteria proposed in the literature and their ef-
2
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
fects on the predicted crack path by means of compar-
ative numerical analyses based on the Extended Finite
Element Method: a principal stress criterion based
on the averaged stresses around the crack tip (Wells
and Sluys 2001), a maximum circumferential stress
criterion based on the stress intensity factors deter-
mined according to Linear Elastic Fracture Mechan-
ics (Cend on et al. 2000; Mo es and Belytschko 2002;
Zi and Belytschko 2003), a global tracking algo-
rithm (Oliver et al. 2002; Oliver et al. 2004) and a
global energy-based crack propagation criterion re-
cently proposed by (Dumstorff and Meschke 2004;
Dumstorff and Meschke 2005a; Meschke and Dum-
storff 2005).
The paper addresses in the second part, the role of
the chosen interface law upon the numerical results.
To this end, a damage-based traction-separation inter-
face law proposed by (Camacho and Ortiz 1996) is
employed.
In the last part of the paper, the incorporation of
moisture ow in X-FEM-based multield analyses is
addressed.
2 Summary of Extended Finite Element Method
In this section a concise description of the used Ex-
tended Finite Element Method is given. For a more
detailed and complete description of the Extended Fi-
nite Element Method we refer to (Mo es et al. 1999;
Dolbow 1999).
3 Kinematics of cracked bodies
The displacement eld u of a body whose domain
contains a localized fracture surface
s
can be decom-
posed into a continuous part u and a discontinuous
part u
u(x) = u(x) + u(x), x , (1)
with u(x) = S
s
(x) u(x). u and u are continuous
functions and S
s
is the Sign function.
The geometrically linear strain eld is obtained
from taking the symmetric gradient of u according to
Equation (1)
(u) =
S
u =
S
u+S
S

S
u
. .
regular
+2( un)
S

S
. .
singular
.(2)
3.1 Enhanced displacement approximation
If a crack fully crosses an element, the Sign function
according to Equation (1) is used to represent the dis-
continuous diplacement eld across the crack. Using
standard bi-linear nite element shape functions as a
partition of unity, the approximation of the displace-
ment eld associated with nodes, whose support is
crossed by a crack is, according to Equation (1), given
by a continuous part u and a discontinuous part u,
u = u+ u = u+S
s
u, (3)
with
u
nr

i=1
N
i
u
r
i
, u
4

i=1
N
i
u
c
i
(4)
where n
r
is the number of nodes used for the spatial
discretization of the regular displacement eld (super-
script r) (Figure 1). In the present implementation,
hierarchical higher order shape functions, allowing
to chose polynomials in the range between p = 2 to
p = 5, are used for the approximation of the regular
displacements. For the displacements u enriched by
the Sign-function (superscript c) four low order (lin-
ear) shape functions are used.
Figure 1: Approximation of the displacement eld of
elements crossed by a crack by means of enhanced
shape functions S
s
(x)N
i
Additional enhancement functions are used for the
crack tip. Again, the approximation consists of a con-
tinuous part u and a discontinuous part u according
to (3). with
u =
nr

i=1
u
r
i
N
i
+
4

i=1
3

k=1
u
t
ki
N
i
F
k
,
u
4

i=1
u
t
4i
N
i

F
4
, (5)
where low order shape functions are used for the en-
riched part at the crack tip elements (superscript t).
In (5)

F
4
= S
s
F
4
, considering S
s
S
s
= 1, was used to
allow for a consistent notation.
For cohesive cracks, characterized by bounded
stresses at the crack tip, the crack tip functions
characterized by non-singular derivatives are used
(see (Dumstorff and Meschke 2004; Dumstorff and
Meschke 2005b; Meschke and Dumstorff 2005) for
details). The function F
4
used in the approximation is
illustrated in Figure 2.
3
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
Figure 2: Discontinuous function F
4
used for the ap-
proximation of the displacement eld in the vicinity
of the tip of cohesive cracks
Figure 3 illustrates the nodal enrichment strategy
for open cracks according to Equation (3) and for
crack tip segments according to (5). Since, accord-
ing to the proposed energy-based crack propagation
criterion, the orientation and the length of new seg-
ments is not known a priori, a larger region of po-
tential crack paths is enriched in the vicinity of the
crack tip. The evaluation of the area integrals within
elements crossed by a crack is based on a Delaunay
sub-triangularisation of the respective areas on both
crack tip
Regular node
Enrichment by Signum function
Crack-tip enrichment
Combined enrichment
Figure 3: Nodal enrichment strategy for open cracks
and for the region in the vicinity of the crack tip
sides of the crack.
4 Traction-separation law for mixed mode condi-
tions
This subsection contains a concise description of a
traction-separation law suitable for cohesive cracks
in quasi-brittle materials subjected to general mixed
mode conditions. This model, introduced by (Cama-
cho and Ortiz 1996) and later employed by (Mariani
and Perego 2003), among others, accounts for dissi-
pative mechanisms in Mode-I and Mode-II conditions
using equivalent crack tractions and crack openings.
The relation between the traction vector t
s
and the
displacement jump [[u]] representing its energetic con-
jugate variable is given in the general format
t
s
= T[[u]] =
_
T
e
T
d
_
[[u]] , (6)
where T
e
= T
e
I is an initial isotropic (elastic) stiff-
ness corresponding to the initial uncracked situation
and T
d
denotes a damage tensor governing the degra-
dation of the stiffness T. In the present model, the re-
lation (6) is formulated in terms of equivalent trac-
tions t
eq
and equivalent crack openings [[u]]
eq
, respec-
tively:
t
eq
= (T
e
T
d
) [[u]]
eq
, (7)
with [[u]]
eq
dened as
[[u]]
eq
=
_
[[u]]
2
n
+
2
[[u]]
2
s
. (8)
Inelastic crack opening under mixed mode condi-
tions is charaterized by the damage criterion dened
in terms of the equivalent crack opening and the inter-
nal variable :
([[u]]
eq
, ) = [[u]]
eq
0. (9)
The equivalent traction t
eq
is dened via the work
equivalence condition
t
eq
[[ u]]
eq
= t
n
[[ u]]
n
+t
s
[[ u]]
s
. (10)
and
_
t
s
d[[u]]
s
+
_
t
n
d[[u]]
n
=
_
t
eq
d[[u]]
eq
= G
f
, (11)
where G
f
is the fracture energy. In accordance with
(11) the equivalent damage stiffness T
d
is dened as
an exponentially increasing function of the history
variable :
T
d
= T
e
_
1

exp
_

f
tu
G
f
(
0
)
__
, (12)
with f
tu
as the tensile strength and
0
as the initial
value of dened as
0
=
ftu
T
e
.
4
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
5 Crack growth models
In this section four different criteria for the deter-
mination of the crack growth direction are investi-
gated. Two criteria are based on local information
from the vicinity of the individual crack tip and two
criteria have a global character: a principal stress cri-
terion based on the averaged stresses around the crack
tip (Wells and Sluys 2001), a maximum circumferen-
tial stress criterion based on the stress intensity factors
determined according to Linear Elastic Fracture Me-
chanics (Cend on et al. 2000; Mo es and Belytschko
2002; Zi and Belytschko 2003), a global tracking al-
gorithm (Oliver et al. 2002; Oliver et al. 2004) and a
global energy-based crack propagation criterion. For
all analyses, the same criterion for crack initiation has
been used. According to this criterion the crack prop-
agation process is governed by the minimization of
the total energy (Xie and Gerstle 1995; Meschke and
Dumstorff 2005).
5.1 Averaged Stress Criterion
According to the averaged stress criterion proposed
in (Wells and Sluys 2001), the principle axis of the
averaged stress tensor
m
, corresponding to the max-
imum principle stress, is taken as the normal vector
n
s
of the crack extension. To this end, an averaged
stress tensor
m
is computed

m
=
_
wdV (13)
using a GAUSSian weight function w (Wells and
Sluys 2001).
5.2 Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics
Although cohesive crack models are generally not
compatible with the underlying assumptions of Lin-
ear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM), a maximum
circumferential stress criterion based upon the evalu-
ation of the stress intensity factors K
I
and K
II
have
been used in combination with cohesive crack mod-
els by various authors (Cend on et al. 2000; Mo es and
Belytschko 2002; Zi and Belytschko 2003).
This LEFM-based criterion is characterized by
two separate computational steps: In a rst step the
crack path is calculated assuming linear elasticity and
traction-free cracks. The second step is characterized
by the incorporation of the cohesive crack model, i.e.
the consideration of traction forces along the open
crack as well as the new crack segment, using the
crack topology obtained from LEFM. Using this ap-
proach the inuence of cohesive forces on the crack
path is obviously completely disregarded.
In the present analyses the two steps are computed
simultaneously. To this end, an additional set of de-
grees of freedom is introduced at each node. The rst
set of degrees of freedom is used for the approx-
imation of the linear elastic structural system with
traction-free cracks and the additional set of degrees
of freedom is used for the analysis of the structural
system incorporating the cohesive crack model.
In this paper the crack is assumed to grow in the
direction of the maximum circumferential stress de-
termined by means of the stress intensity factors K
I
and K
II
(see (Mo es and Belytschko 2002)).
5.3 Global Tracking Algorithm
The so-called Global Tracking Algorithm has been
proposed by (Oliver et al. 2002; Oliver et al. 2004) in
the context of the Strong Discontinuity Approach and
has been modied recently by (Feist and Hofstetter
2003). Nevertheless the implementation into the Ex-
tended Finite Element Method is straightforward. In
contrast to the previously described criteria the Global
Tracking Algorithm does not need to be evaluated for
each individual crack but traces all possible disconti-
nuity paths at once.
The basic idea of this method is to construct a func-
tion whose iso-lines are aligned perpendicular with
the directions of the principal stresses (i.e. the direc-
tions of potential crack normal directions) in all inte-
gration points of the investigated structure. To this end
a stationary anisotropic heat conduction-like problem
is solved with the anisotropic conductivity being de-
ned by the principal axes of the maximum stresses.
The isothermal lines of the calculated temperature
eld represent all possible crack paths. (Oliver et al.
2002; Oliver et al. 2004).
5.4 Minimum of total energy
In this subsection a global energy-based criterion for
cohesive crack models recently proposed in (Dum-
storff and Meschke 2005b; Meschke and Dumstorff
2005) is investigated. Inspired by energy considera-
tions on which Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics is
based, the crack propagation angle
cr
of a new cohe-
sive crack segment relative to the existing crack is de-
termined by minimizing the total energy of the body.
A similar procedure has been proposed by (Shen
and Stephansson 1994) within the framework of the
boundary element method and by (Peters et al. 2004)
in the context of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics
using X-FEM.
The total energy of a cracked body consists of the
internal energy U, the external work W
b
and W
t
of
the body forces b and the surface tractions t

and the
surface energy of the crack W
s
:
(u,
cr
) = U +W
b
+W
t
+W
s
, (14)
with
U =
_

__

0
() d
_
dV,
5
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
W
b
=
_

_
u
0
ubdV, (15)
W
t
=
_

_
u
0
ut

dA.
The functional depends on the displacement eld
u and the crack angle
cr
. Consequently,
cr
is intro-
duced as an additional degree of freedom in the dis-
cretized structural model. This additional degree of
freedom and the unknowns of the regular and the en-
hanced displacement eld - u and u - are solved for
simultaneously in analogy to multield problems.
For cohesive cracks, the surface energy W
s
is given
as
W
s
=
_
s
_
[[u]]
0
t
s
([[u]]) [[u]] dA, (16)
with the separation-dependent residual tractions
t
s
([[u]]) acting along the process zone of the crack.
Among all possible deformed congurations of the
body containing one (or more) crack(s) extended by
one (or more) new crack segment(s), the actual one,
associated with a safe equilibrium of the cracked
body will lead to a minimum of (u,
cr
) (Le 1990).
Linearization of the extended weak form associated
with the stationarity condition (u,
cr
) = 0 yields
a coupled system analogous to multield problems
(Meschke and Dumstorff 2005)
=
_
u

cr
_

_
k
uu
k
u
k
u
k

__
u

cr
_
. (17)
The global degree of freedom
cr
is introduced
through the enhancement function S
s
which is formu-
lated in terms of
cr
. To this end, the Sign function S
s
at the crack tip segment is re-formulated in the form
S
s
(x,
cr
) = sign(d(x, )) (18)
with d(x,
cr
) = n
s
(
cr
) (x x
cr
), and x
cr
as the
coordinates of the root of the crack tip segment. In
order to enhance the robustness of numerical analy-
ses, all degrees of freedom associated with the crack
tip enhancement function within a circular area in the
vicinity of the crack tip (see Figure 3) are coupled.
Details of the numerical implementation and the com-
putation of the tangent stiffness matrix are contained
in (Meschke and Dumstorff 2005).
6 Inuence of the crack propagation model
In this section the performance of the four crack
growth criteria described above is investigated by
means of two representative numerical benchmark
examples. The rst example is concerned with re-
analyses of a Mixed-Mode fracture benchmark test
(Nooru-Mohamed 1992), while the second bench-
mark test, a L-shaped concrete panel tested by (Win-
kler 2001), is dominated by Mode-I fracture. For all
analyses, the interface law as described in Section 4
has been employed. For the approximation of the reg-
ular displacement eld, biquadratic shape functions
are used. Bilinear shape functions are used as Parti-
tion of Unity.
6.1 Mixed-Mode Fracture Test
200 mm
25
5
2
0
0
m
m
F
n
, u
n
F
n
, u
n
F
s
F
s
Figure 4: Mixed-Mode fracture test: Geometry and
material parameters
A square shaped double edge notched specimen
made of mortar which has been tested by Nooru-
Mohamed (Nooru-Mohamed 1992) is used as a
benchmark for the assessment of the different crack
propagation criteria in a Mixed-Mode dominated sit-
uation. The geometry, the loading and boundary con-
ditions of the specimen are contained in Figure 4. The
material parameters and the parameters required for
the interface law are chosen as follows: Youngs mod-
ulus E=30000.00 [N/mm
2
], Poissons ratio =0.20,
fracture energie G
f
=0.11 [N/mm], tensile strength
f
tu
= 3.00 [N/mm
2
], = 2.00,
0
= 0.001 [mm]. The
thickness of the panel is d= 50.00 [mm]. The load
sequence is dened as follows: rst the specimen is
subjected to a shear force which is increased up to
F
s
= 10 kN. Subsequently, a displacement-controlled
tensile axial load F
n
is applied. A relatively coarse -
nite element mesh consisting of 435 elements assum-
ing plane stress conditions was used.
Figure 5 shows a comparison of the experimen-
tally obtained crack path and the numerical results ob-
tained from the four investigated crack growth crite-
ria. For all crack growth models, the calculated crack
paths are not inuenced by the layout of the nite el-
ement mesh. The range of crack paths observed in the
6
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
c)
d)
a)
b)
Figure 5: Numerical analysis of the Mixed-Mode
fracture test: crack paths based on a) averaged stress
criterion, b) Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics, c)
minimum of total energy, d) Global Tracking Algo-
rithm
experiments is indicated in light grey color in Fig-
ure 5. The computed crack paths using the averaged
stress criterion (Figure 5a), the Global Tracking Algo-
rithm(Figure 5d) and the global energy criterion (Fig-
ure 5c) are located well within the experimentally de-
termined range. Only the crack path based on Linear
Elastic Fracture Mechanics (Figure 5b) is not located
within the range of experimental observations. The
curvature of the crack observed in the experiments is
perfectly reproduced by all numerical simulations in-
dependent of the crack growth criterion.
6.2 L-shaped panel
The second numerical example is concerned with a
L-shaped panel made of concrete which was investi-
gated experimentally by (Winkler 2001). The geome-
try, the loading and boundary conditions of the panel
are contained in Figure 6. The load F is applied incre-
mentally via prescribed displacements. The material
parameters are chosen as follows: Youngs modulus
E=25850.00 [N/mm
2
], Poissons ratio =0.18, frac-
ture energie G
f
=0.095 [N/mm], tensile strength f
tu
=
2.70 [N/mm
2
], = 1.50,
0
= 0.001 [mm]. The thick-
ness of the panel is d= 100.00 [mm]. Figure 7a con-
tains the chosen nite element discretization which
consists of 261 elements assuming plane stress condi-
tions.
250 mm 250 mm
2
5
0
m
m
2
5
0
m
m
F, u
Figure 6: Numerical analysis of a L-shaped panel: Ge-
ometry and loading conditions
In Figure 7b the crack path calculated using the av-
eraged stress criterion is shown. The crack follows a
path located belowthe experimental range. Shortly af-
ter the peak load is reached a sharp bending of the
crack path is observed. This pathological behavior can
be attributed to the state of almost equal biaxial ten-
sile stresses existing in the vicinity of the crack tip.
The numerical results after bending of the crack are
no longer reasonable.
The crack path computed by means of the crack
growth criterion based on Linear Elastic Fracture
Mechanics (Figure 7c) is located perfectly within
the experimentally determined range. Obviously, for
7
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
d)
b)
c)
a)
Figure 7: Numerical analyses of the L-shaped panel:
a) nite element discretization, b) - d) crack paths
based on: b) averaged stress criterion, c) Linear Elas-
tic Fracture Mechanics, d) minimum of total energy
crack propagation problems characterized primarily
by Mode-I fracture, such as the L-shaped panel,
LEFM seem to result in reasonable predictions of the
crack path even for quasi-brittle materials like con-
crete.
The crack path obtained by means of the criterion
based upon the global energy criterion, illustrated in
Figure 7d, is also located perfectly within the exper-
imentally determined range. For a more detailed in-
vestigation of the global energy criterion and its com-
parison with other crack propagation models we refer
to (Meschke and Dumstorff 2005).
7 Inuence of the crack interface model
In this subsection, the L-shaped panel is analyzed as-
suming cohesive crack propagation using the inter-
face models described in Section 4. The major interest
of this study is to investigate the inuence of the shear
transfer law, governed by the coupling parameter ,
on the predicted crack path.
Three values of the parameter , representing dif-
ferent values of the elastic shear stiffness as well as
of the shear strength, have been used for the anal-
yses: = 1 (low shear stiffness and strength), =
1, 5 (medium shear stiffness and strength) and = 2
(large shear stiffness and strength). It should be noted,
that no attempt was made to calibrate the value of
directly from experiments on cracked specimens.
For the analyses, in order to assess the inuence of
the mesh orientation, a structured and an unstructured
mesh are employed.
Figure 8 contains the numerical results from the
damaging interface model for both discretizations and
three different values of .
As is illustrated in Figure 8, the shear resistance ex-
pressed by the parameter has a considerable inu-
ence on the predicted crack path. This relatively large
inuence is remarkable, considering that the investi-
gated benchmark can be regarded as a Mode-I domi-
nated problem. The inuence of the mesh orientation
on the crack path is relatively small. The crack path
obtained from a value of = 1, 5 lies reasonably well
within the range of the experimental results. Also the
crack topology seems to agree well with the labora-
tory observations. Taking = 1, i.e. assuming a very
small shear resistance, leads to a crack which, after
an initially inclined portion of the path, propagates
almost horizontally through the panel. On the other
hand, setting = 2 provides a crack path which is lo-
cated near the upper bound of the experimental range.
From the numerical results shown in Figure 8 it can
be concluded that values of = 1 and = 2 seems
to provide lower and upper bounds for the physically
correct values of the coupling parameter . The in-
uence of the parameter as well as of the mesh
discretization on the load-displacement curve is only
marginal.
It is interesting to note, that for the present Mode-
I dominated benchmark problem the difference be-
8
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
= 2 = 1.5 = 1.0
Figure 8: Numerical analysis of an L-shaped panel:
Computed crack paths obtained from the damage in-
terface law using three different values for the param-
eter and two different discretizations
tween the crack paths computed from cohesive zone
models using realistic model parameters and the pre-
dictions from Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics, in
which cohesive effects are neglected completely, is
only marginal.
8 Extension to coupled hygro-mechanical problems
For prognoses of the durability of cementitious mate-
rials taking into account the interaction between the
mechanical structural behavior and transport of ag-
gressive substances, the effects of cracks on the trans-
port of moisture transport has to be accounted for. In
this section, the extension of the X-FEM-based crack
model to hygro-mechanical problem is addressed.
This formulation is, for now, limited to fully saturated
conditions.
In analogy to the partitioning of the displacement
eld u, the liquid pressure eld p can be decomposed
into a continous part p and a discontinous part p
p(x) = p(x) + p(x), x , (19)
with p(x) = S
S
(x) p(x) where p and p are continous
functions in the domain and S
S
is the Sign function,
resulting in an possible jump of the uid pressure eld
on the discontinuity line
[[p(x)]] = 2 p(x), x
S
. (20)
Accordingly, the gradient of the liquid pressure can
be divided into a regular and a Dirac-delta distribution
(Abellan et al. 2005)
p = p + S
S
p
. .
regular
+ 2
S
pn
. .
singular
, (21)
where n is the unit normal on the discontinuity line.
For the moisture transport the general nonlinear re-
lation between the moisture ux q
l
and the spatial gra-
dient of the liquid pressure p is assumed
q = D
l
p (22)
with the matrix of liquid permeability D
l
= k/
l
given in terms of the liquid permeability matrix k and
the viscosity of water
l
.
For concrete, the permeabilty matrix k
f
(S
l
, ) in
the intact parts of the structure, can be described as
a function of the uid saturation S
l
and the poros-
ity (Powers 1958; Meschke and Grasberger 2003). r
Within open cracks, different permeabilites k
t
crack
for
uid transport in and k
n
crack
normal to the crack chan-
nel acting as a diaphragm corresponding to possible
jumps in the liquid pressure eld p, which may be sig-
nicantly different from the permeability outside the
crack k
f
, have to be taken into account.
The permeabilty k
t
crack
(w) of cracks in concrete is
assumed as a nonlinear function of the crack opening
w = [[u(x
S
)]], in which the tortuosity is accounted for.
This assumption is conrmed by experimental and
numerical data shown in Figure 9.
crack openi ng w [mm]
n
o
r
m
.

p
e
r
m
e
a
b
i
l
i
t
y

[
-
]
Figure 9: Experimental and numerical data of the re-
lation between crack opening and permeability
To describe the different moisture transport mech-
anism of the continuum and the crack, one possible
strategy is the additive decomposition of the perme-
ability matrix into a part which characterizes the per-
meability of the continuum k
f
and one associated
9
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
with the crack channel k
t
crack
(Snow 1969; Meschke
and Grasberger 2003).
For the fully saturated case, the anisotropic crack
permeability matrix k
crack
takes the form
k
crack
= T
T
k

crack
T, (23)
with k

crack
related to the local crack coordinate sys-
tem x

of the crack and the transformation matrix T.

The weak form of the mass balance equation, as-
suming both the skeleton and uid phase to be incom-
pressible, is given by
W
h
=
_

p1 : dV
_

p qdV

_
q
pq

dA = 0.
(24)
with the NEUMANN boundary condition q n = q

.
The spatial nite element discretization is based on
the aproximation of the liquid pressure eld as a par-
tition of unity
p p =
nr

i=1
N
i
p
r
i
+ S
S
nc

i=1
N
i
p
c
i
, (25)
with the regular degrees of freedom p
er
i
and the en-
hanced degrees of freedom p
ec
i
associated with the
Sign function S
S
. After linearization, Equation (24)
results in a coupled system of equations characterized
by the effective stiffness matrix K
eff
and the internal
load vector r
eff
K
eff
=
_

_
K
u, u
K
u, u
K
u, p
K
u, p
K
u, u
K
u, u
K
u, p
K
u, p
K
p, u
K
p, u
K
p, p
K
p, p
K
p, u
K
p, u
K
p, p
K
p, p
_

_
,
r
eff
int
=
_
r
u
r
u
r
p
r
p
_
T
.
(26)
9 Conclusions
In this paper the Extended Finite Element Method
is used for 2D plane stress analyses of the prop-
agation of cohesive cracks within structures made
of quasi-brittle materials. Two local and two global
crack growth criteria have been investigated by means
of comparative numerical analyses: a principal stress
criterion based on the averaged stresses around the
crack tip, a maximum circumferential stress crite-
rion based on Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics, a
Global Tracking Algorithm and a global energy cri-
terion based on the minimization of the total energy
within the structure.
Furthermore, the inuence of the different crack
propagation criteria and of the inuence of the inter-
face law has been investigated numerically by means
of two representative numerical examples character-
ized by Mode-I and Mixed-Mode dominated fracture.
The criterion based on the Linear Elastic Frac-
ture Mechanics seem to perform well in Mode-I
dominated fracture in quasi-brittle materials. For the
Mixed-Mode problem, a more or less signicant devi-
ation fromthe range experimental results has been ob-
served. It is concluded, that the applicability of LEFM
for cohesive crack problems depends on the problem
and cannot be generalized. The criterion based on the
minimum of the total energy yields satisfactory re-
sults for both examples. This criterion does not need
any material-specic assumptions regarding the de-
termination crack direction. It is, in contrast to the
LEFM-based criterion, fully consistent with the as-
sumption of cohesive cracks. The inuence of the spe-
cic material is reected by the specic choice of the
interface law for open cracks and the parameters used
therein. Consequently, as has been shown in the paper,
the specic parameters, such as the parameter gov-
erning the coupling between the shear and the normal
behavior of the traction-crack opening-law used for
the present analyses, may have a signicant inuence
on the predicted crack path.
Finally, an outline of a X-FEM-based crack formu-
lation incorporating the effect of moisture ow has
been given. This work is in progress.
REFERENCES
Abellan, M., R. de Borst, and J. Bergheau (2005). Analy-
sis of discontinuities in uid-saturated porous media. In
A. Carpinteri (Ed.), International Conference on Frac-
ture (ICF 11).
Armero, F. and K. Garikipati (1996). An analysis of strong
discontinuities in multiplicative nite strain plasticity
and their relation with the numerical simulation of strain
localization in solids. International Journal of Solids
and Structures 33(20), 28632885.
Camacho, G. and M. Ortiz (1996). Computational mod-
elling of impact damage in brittle materials. Interna-
tional Journal of Solids and Structures 33, 28992938.
Cend on, D., J. G alvez, M. Elices, and J. Planas (2000).
Modelling the fracture of concrete under mixed loading.
International Journal of Fracture 103, 293310.
de Borst, R. (2002). Some recent issues in computational
failure mechanics. International Journal for Numerical
Methods in Engineering 52, 6395.
Dolbow, J. (1999). An extended nite element method with
discontinous enrichment for applied mechanics. Ph. D.
thesis, Northwestern University.
Dumstorff, P. (2005). Modellierung und numerische Sim-
ulation von Rissfortschritt in sprden und quasi-sprden
Materialien auf Basis der Extended Finite Element
Method. Ph. D. thesis, Lehrstuhl f ur Statik und Dy-
namik, Institut f ur konstruktiven Ingenieurbau, Ruhr-
Universit at Bochum.
10
A
u
t
h
o
r
'
s

c
o
p
y
Dumstorff, P. and G. Meschke (2004). Investigation of
crack growth criteria in the context of the Extended
Finite Element Method. In P. Neitaanmki, T. Bossi,
S. Konotov, E. Onate, J. Periaux, and D. Kn orzer (Eds.),
IV European Congress on Computational Methods in
Applied Sciences and Engineering (ECCOMAS 2004),
Jyvskyl, Finland. CD-ROM.
Dumstorff, P. and G. Meschke (2005a). Crack propaga-
tion criteria in the framework of X-FEM-based struc-
tural analyses. International Journal for Numerical and
Analytical Methods in Geomechanics. submitted.
Dumstorff, P. and G. Meschke (2005b). A global energy
criterion for crack propagation using the Extended Fi-
nite Element method. In A. Carpinteri (Ed.), Interna-
tional Conference on Fracture (ICF 11).
Dumstorff, P., J. Mosler, and G. Meschke (2003). Ad-
vanced discretization methods for cracked structures:
The Strong Discontinuity approach vs. the Extended
Finite Element Method. In Computational Plasticity
2003. CIMNE, Barcelona: CD-ROM.
Feist, C. and G. Hofstetter (2003). Mesh-insensitive strong
discontinuity approach for fracture simulations of con-
crete. In Numerical Methods in Continuum Mechanics
(NMCM 2003).
Jir asek, M. and Z. Ba zant (2002). Inelastic Analysis of
Structures. John Wiley & Sons.
Jira sek, M. and T. Belytschko (2002). Computational reso-
lution of strong discontinuities. In H. Mang, F. Ram-
merstorfer, and J. Eberhardsteiner (Eds.), Fifth World
Congress on Computational Mechanics (WCCM V).
Online publication.
Jira sek, M. and T. Zimmermann (2001). Embedded crack
model: Part 1: Basic formulation. part 2: Combination
with smeared cracks. International Journal for Numer-
ical Methods in Engineering 50, 12691305.
Le, K. C. (1990). Variational principle of nonlinear brit-
tle fracture mechanics. Journal of Applied Mathematics
and Mechanics (PMM) 54, 658665.
Mariani, S. and U. Perego (2003). Extended nite element
method for quasi-brittle fracture. International Journal
for Numerical Methods in Engineering 58, 103126.
Meschke, G. and P. Dumstorff (2005). Energy-based mod-
eling of cohesive and cohesionless cracks via X-FEM.
Submitted for publication.
Meschke, G. and S. Grasberger (2003). Numerical mod-
eling of coupled hygromechanical degradation of ce-
mentitious materials. Journal of Engineering Mechan-
ics (ASCE) 129(4), 383392.
Mo es, N. and T. Belytschko (2002). Extended nite ele-
ment method for cohesive crack growth. Engineering
Fracture Mechanics 69, 813833.
Mo es, N., J. Dolbow, and T. Belytschko (1999). A nite
element method for crack growth without remeshing.
International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engi-
neering 46, 131150.
Mosler, J. and G. Meschke (2003). 3D modeling of strong
discontinuities in elastoplastic solids: Fixed and rotat-
ing localization formulations. International Journal for
Numerical Methods in Engineering 57, 15531576.
Nooru-Mohamed, M. (1992). Mixed-mode Fracture of
Concrete: an Experimental Approach. Ph. D. thesis,
Technische Universiteit Delft.
Oliver, J. (1996). Modelling strong discontinuities in solid
mechanics via strain softening constitutive equations.
Part 1: Fundamentals, Part 2: Numerical simulation.
International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engi-
neering 39, 35753623.
Oliver, J., A. Huespe, E. Samaniego, and E. Chaves (2002,
July). On strategies for tracking strong discontinuities in
computational failure mechanics. In H. Mang, F. Ram-
merstorfer, and J. Eberhardsteiner (Eds.), Fifth World
Congress on Computational Mechanics (WCCM V).
Online publication.
Oliver, J., A. Huespe, E. Samaniego, and E. Chaves (2004).
Continuum approach to the numerical simulation of ma-
terial failure in concrete. International Journal for Nu-
merical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 28,
609632.
Peters, M., U. Hoppe, and K. Hackl (2004). Simula-
tion of crack propagation using embedded disconti-
nuities. In F. Stangenberg, O. Bruhns, D. Hartmann,
and G. Meschke (Eds.), 2nd International Conference
on Lifetime Oriented Concepts, Bochum, Germany, pp.
141148.
Powers, T. (1958). Structure and physical properties of
hardened Portland cement paste. Journal of the Amer-
ican Ceramic Society 41, 16.
Shen, B. and O. Stephansson (1994). Modication of the
g-criterion for crack propagation subjected to compres-
sion. Engineering Fracture Mechanics 47, 177189.
Simo, J., J. Oliver, and F. Armero (1993). An analysis
of strong discontinuities induced by strain-softening in
rate-independent inelastic solids. Computational Me-
chanics 12, 277296.
Snow, D. (1969). Anisotropic permeability of fractured me-
dia. Water Resources Research 5, 12731289.
Wells, G. and L. Sluys (2001). A new method for mod-
elling cohesive cracks using nite elements. Interna-
tional Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineer-
ing 50, 26672682.
Winkler, B. J. (2001). Traglastuntersuchungen von unbe-
wehrten und bewehrten Betonstrukturen auf der Grund-
lage eines objektiven Werkstoffgesetzes f ur Beton. Ph.
D. thesis, Universit at Innsbruck.
Xie, M. and W. Gerstle (1995). Energy-based cohesive
crack propagation modeling. Journal of Engineering
Mechanics (ASCE) 121(12), 13491358.
Zi, G. and T. Belytschko (2003). New crack-tip elements
for X-FEM and applications to cohesive cracks. Inter-
national Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineer-
ing 57, 22212240.
11