We investigate collisions (assumed to be instantaneous) and fractures of three-dimensional solids. Equations of motion and constitutive laws provide a set of partial differential equations, whose corresponding variational problem may be solved in the space of special functions with bounded deformations (), exploiting the direct method of calculus of variations.
In linear fracture mechanics, it is common to use the local Irwin criterion or the equivalent global Griffith criterion for decision whether the crack is propagating or not. In both cases, a quantity called the stress intensity factor can be used. In this paper, four methods are compared to calculate the stress intensity factor numerically; namely by using the stress values, the shape of a crack, nodal reactions and the global energetic method. The most accurate global energetic method is used to...