Interface-Aware Neural Newton Preconditioning for Robust Cohesive Zone Model Simulations

Cohesive Zone Models (CZMs) are widely used to simulate interface fracture, delamination, adhesive failure, and fiber--matrix debonding in aerospace composite structures.

In implicit quasi-static finite element analyses, cohesive softening may introduce negative interface tangents, solution jumps, and Newton-basin mismatch, so the previous converged state can become a poor initial guess for the next increment.

This may lead to stagnation, wrong-branch convergence, or repeated step cuts.

Existing remedies, including viscous regularization, path following, dynamic relaxation, and manual Newton--Raphson (NR) modification, either alter the effective response, increase cost, or rely on hand-crafted interface rules.

This work proposes an Interface-Aware Neural Newton Preconditioner (IA-NNP) for difficult CZM increments.

IA-NNP recasts manual NR modification as rule-based interface lifting and generalizes it into a learned, state-dependent interface correction.

The method acts only on active interface variables and preserves the original traction--separation law, residual assembly, tangent evaluation, history update, and dissipation checks.

Two realizations are developed: IA-NNP-Init for learned initial-guess lifting and IA-NNP-NL for iteration-level nonlinear right preconditioning.

Interface graph features encode opening, traction, tangent, damage/history variables, mode mixity, residuals, and neighboring states.

The correction is bounded, confidence-gated, and accepted only through the original CZM Newton solve.

A root-equivalence property shows that IA-NNP changes the path to convergence but not the discrete CZM solution set.

Tests on horizontal, circular, two-interface, and active-front benchmarks show improved difficult-increment convergence, better branch recovery, and fewer failures than standard NR and manual NR modification, while preserving the force--displacement response.