Virtual element method for phase field modeling of dynamic fracture

In this paper, we propose a new and efficient virtual element scheme for phase field modeling of the dynamic fracture using an explicit time integration scheme. The explicit time integrator divided the whole problem into two parts, namely, mechanical and damage sub-problems. The former is treated as an elastodynamic equation while the latter is treated as a Poisson equation with reaction terms subjected to irreversibility and bounded constraints. To test the performance of the proposed numerical framework, several benchmark problems are validated and the results are in good agreement with the corresponding numerical and experimental study. Moreover, VEM outperforms FEM in view of memory efficiency and choice of element type.