NURBS- and T-spline-based isogeometric cohesive zone modeling of interface debonding

Cohesive zone (CZ) models have long been used by the scientific community to analyze the progressive damage of materials and interfaces. In these models, non-linear relationships between tractions and relative displacements are assumed, which dictate both the work of separation per unit fracture surface and the peak stress that has to be reached for the crack formation. This contribution deals with isogeometric CZ modeling of interface debonding. The interface is discretized with generalized contact elements which account for both contact and cohesive debonding within a unified framework. The formulation is suitable for non-matching discretizations of the interacting surfaces in presence of large deformations and large relative displacements. The isogeometric discretizations are based on non uniform rational B-splines as well as analysis-suitable T-splines enabling local refinement. Conventional Lagrange polynomial discretizations are also used for comparison purposes. Some numerical examples demonstrate that the proposed formulation based on isogeometric analysis is a computationally accurate and efficient technology to solve challenging interface debonding problems in 2D and 3D.