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Title: Poromechanical cohesive interface element with combined Mode I-II cohesive zone elastoplasticity for simulating fracture in fluid-saturated porous media

Journal Article · · Computers and Structures
 [1];  [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. University of Anbar (Iraq)
  2. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  3. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

A combined Mode I-II cohesive zone (CZ) elasto-plastic constitutive model, and a two-dimensional (2D) cohesive interface element (CIE) are formulated and implemented at small strain within an ABAQUS User Element (UEL) for simulating 2D crack nucleation and propagation in fluid-saturated porous media. Here, the CZ model mitigates problems of convergence for the global Newton-Raphson solver within ABAQUS, which when combined with a viscous stabilization procedure allows for simulation of post-peak response under load control for coupled poromechanical finite element analysis, such as concrete gravity dam stability analysis. Verification examples are presented, along with a more complex ambient limestone-concrete wedge fracture experiment, water-pressurized concrete wedge experiment, and concrete gravity dam stability analyses. A calibration procedure for estimating the CZ parameters is demonstrated with the limestone-concrete wedge fracture process. For the water-pressurized concrete wedge fracture experiment it is shown that the inherent time-dependence of the poromechanical CIE analysis provides a good match with experimental force versus displacement results at various crack mouth opening rates, yet misses the pore water pressure evolution ahead of the crack tip propagation. This is likely a result of the concrete being partially-saturated in the experiment, whereas the finite element analysis assumes fully water saturated concrete. For the concrete gravity dam analysis, it is shown that base crack opening and associated water uplift pressure leads to a reduced Factor of Safety, which is confirmed by separate analytical calculations.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
NA0003525; NA0003962
OSTI ID:
2479029
Report Number(s):
SAND--2024-16066J
Journal Information:
Computers and Structures, Journal Name: Computers and Structures Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 305; ISSN 0045-7949
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
ABAQUS UEL
CUBIT mesh generation
Combined Mode I-II cohesive zone (CZ) model
Fluid-saturated cohesive interface element (CIE)
Two-dimensional cracking