Product: ABAQUS/Standard
This section outlines briefly how initially bonded surfaces may interact once they have started to debond. Details on defining a crack propagation analysis can be found in “Crack propagation analysis,” Section 11.4.3.
When two initially bonded surfaces start to debond:
the debonded slave surface nodes are released and can move freely;
the tractions acting on the slave surface nodes at the instant of debonding are ramped down to zero using a user-supplied amplitude curve; and
the contact property models assigned to the contact pair formed by the two surfaces start to govern the interaction of the surfaces.
Once the surfaces start to debond, the friction model assigned to the surfaces will govern the tangential motion of the debonded slave nodes. Friction generates forces tangential to the interface when the surfaces are closed. The frictional forces are independent of the debonding tractions that ABAQUS/Standard applies and ramp off once a slave node debonds; the debonding tractions have no influence on the frictional behavior of a surface.
The crack propagation capability in ABAQUS/Standard was designed for use in classical fracture mechanics problems. It is intended that the capability be used with the default “hard” contact pressure-clearance model. ABAQUS/Standard will prevent the use of one of the nondefault pressure-clearance models when the surfaces can debond.
Crack propagation simulations can be performed as coupled temperature-displacement analyses in ABAQUS/Standard. While bonded, the surfaces are treated as having complete continuity of the temperature field across the interface. Once the surfaces start to debond, the thermal contact property models assigned to the surfaces will govern the thermal interactions across the debonded portion of the interface.