Using the finite cell method to predict crack initiation in ductile materials

In this paper, the Finite Cell Method (FCM) is used to predict the crack evolution in ductile materials under small strains and nonlinear isotropic hardening conditions. The FCM is the result of combining the p-version finite element and fictitious domain methods, and has been shown to be effective in solving problems with complicated geometries for which the meshing procedure can be quite expensive. The crack evolution is introduced to the constitutive equations by using the simplified Lemaitre ductile damage model. The performance of the method is verified by means of two numerical examples in both 2D and 3D problems.