Coupled Phase-Field Fracture and Discrete Dislocation Dynamics for Short-Crack Propagation
Abstract
The interaction between dislocations and cracks plays a central role in the fracture resistance of crystalline materials. However, capturing this coupling across multiple spatial scales remains a major challenge. In this work, we develop a mesoscale modeling framework coupling Discrete Dislocation Dynamics (DDD) with a phase-field formulation of fracture. The coupling is achieved through a non-singular Nye tensor representation of dislocations and solved using an FFT-based spectral method. The proposed framework provides a consistent description of the elastic fields generated by dislocations and their influence on crack-driving forces, while avoiding the residual-stress artifacts commonly associated with eigenstrain-based formulations. The simulations demonstrate that increasing dislocation density enhances elastic shielding at the crack tip, thereby delaying crack propagation and stabilizing intermediate crack-equilibrium states that are absent in purely brittle configurations. Higher dislocation densities also promote more progressive fracture responses associated with enhanced plastic relaxation and dislocation-induced shielding effects, anisotropic crack propagation, and local crack-path deviations depending on the evolving dislocation microstructure. These results demonstrate the ability of the proposed framework to capture key mechanisms governing crack–dislocation interactions and provide new insight into the role of plasticity in fracture resistance. More broadly, the methodology establishes a foundation for further multiscale investigations of failure in crystalline materials, with potential applications to fatigue and toughness optimization.
Related
- Coupled Effects of Biofilm Dynamics and Flow on Hydrogen Transport in a Hydrogen-Generating Fracture
- Nucleation and propagation of brittle fracture as a constrained energy minimization problem
- Energy Transmission and Harmonic Propagation in Unidirectionally Coupled Plasma Oscillator Networks
- Memristor-coupled discrete chaotic maps for lock-in error suppression in ring laser gyroscopes
- Phase-Field Fracture Simulation of Highly Deformable Thin Structures via a Discrete Differential Geometry Framework
BibTeX
@article{eon2026coupled,
title = {{Coupled Phase-Field Fracture and Discrete Dislocation Dynamics for Short-Crack Propagation}},
author = {Luis Eon and Riccardo Gatti and Benoît Appolaire},
journal = {Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.jmps.2026.106877},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05847330v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Coupled Phase-Field Fracture and Discrete Dislocation Dynamics for Short-Crack Propagation
AU - Luis Eon
AU - Riccardo Gatti
AU - Benoît Appolaire
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids
DO - 10.1016/j.jmps.2026.106877
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05847330v1
AB - The interaction between dislocations and cracks plays a central role in the fracture resistance of crystalline materials. However, capturing this coupling across multiple spatial scales remains a major challenge. In this work, we develop a mesoscale modeling framework coupling Discrete Dislocation Dynamics (DDD) with a phase-field formulation of fracture. The coupling is achieved through a non-singular Nye tensor representation of dislocations and solved using an FFT-based spectral method. The proposed framework provides a consistent description of the elastic fields generated by dislocations and their influence on crack-driving forces, while avoiding the residual-stress artifacts commonly associated with eigenstrain-based formulations. The simulations demonstrate that increasing dislocation density enhances elastic shielding at the crack tip, thereby delaying crack propagation and stabilizing intermediate crack-equilibrium states that are absent in purely brittle configurations. Higher dislocation densities also promote more progressive fracture responses associated with enhanced plastic relaxation and dislocation-induced shielding effects, anisotropic crack propagation, and local crack-path deviations depending on the evolving dislocation microstructure. These results demonstrate the ability of the proposed framework to capture key mechanisms governing crack–dislocation interactions and provide new insight into the role of plasticity in fracture resistance. More broadly, the methodology establishes a foundation for further multiscale investigations of failure in crystalline materials, with potential applications to fatigue and toughness optimization.
SN - 0022-5096
ER -