A phase field solution for modelling hyperelastic material and hydrogel fracture in ABAQUS

The phase field fracture model is attracting significant interest. To model fracture in hyperelastic material and hydrogel, we have implemented a robust two- and three-dimensional phase field method in the commercial finite element code ABAQUS/Standard. The method is based on the rate-independent variational principle of diffuse fracture and also exploits the analogy between the phase field evolution law and the heat transfer equation, enabling the use of Abaqus’ in-built features and sparing the need for defining user elements. The framework is shown to accommodate both staggered and monolithic solution schemes. The approach can properly simulate the fracture for both hyperelastic material and hydrogel under different boundary conditions. Several examples are provided to demonstrate the robustness of the method. The provided source codes and the tutorials make it easy for practicing engineers and scientists to model crack propagation in hyperelastic and gel materials.