Phase field fracture in fibre reinforced composites using embedded and virtual elements

Additive manufacturing is emerging as an appealing alternative to standard construction methods, providing capabilities for optimum designs while reducing material usage and construction waste.However, additively manufactured concrete members often come in several non-typical, e.g., tessellated and/or polytope geometries.In this study, a computational framework is developed for the analysis of concrete members reinforced with continuous steel fibres.To this end, a cohesive phase field model is used to simulate fracture in the concrete matrix within a Virtual Element Method (VEM) for the discretization of the resulting coupled system of governing equations.To accurately represent the reinforcement layout while retaining a relatively simple computational model, an embedded element technique is adopted.This combined framework aims at optimizing the discretization processes, overcoming limitations associated with finer mesh requirements while delivering accurate predictions.The effectiveness and robustness of the combined methodology is explored within the context of 2D deformable domains.