XFEM Simulation of Soil Crack Evolution Process Considering the Stress Concentration and Redistribution at the Crack Tip

Cracks are one of the major characteristics of soil structure failure. Successfully performed numerical simulation of the soil crack evolution process is conducive to the prediction of potential dangers. In recent years, crack evolution simulation has been greatly facilitated in the field of fracture mechanics by the development of the extended finite-element method (XFEM). However, it is rarely used to simulate crack evolution in earth structures, because in most cases soil cannot be regarded as a quasi-brittle material. Based on the characteristics of stress concentration and redistribution at the tip of a soil crack revealed by numerical tests, this paper proposes a discriminating method for crack propagation that can reflect the influence of the stress field at the soil crack tip on the crack propagation direction, which is then coded to an XFEM program. Compared with existing methods, this new method is found to be more accurate and effective.