Embedded crack model: I. Basic formulation

The recently emerged idea of enriching standard nite element interpolations by strain or displacement dis- continuities has triggered the development of powerful techniques that allow e cient modelling of regions with highly localized strains, e.g. of fracture zones in concrete, or shear bands in metals or soils. The present paper describes a triangular element with an embedded displacement discontinuity that represents a crack. The constitutive model is formulated within the framework of damage theory, with crack closure e ects and friction on the crack faces taken into account. Numerical aspects of the implementation are discussed. In a companion paper, the embedded crack approach is combined with the more traditional smeared crack approach