A Variational Nonlocal Phase-Field Model for Dynamic Fracture in Elastic Solids

We develop a variational nonlocal phase-field model for dynamic fracture in elastic solids.

The proposed formulation is distinguished by three main features.

First, the model is formulated through nonlocal kinematics and kernel-dependent function spaces, allowing weaker regularity requirements while recovering the classical local theory as the nonlocal interaction domain vanishes.

Second, a nonlocal crack-surface functional is introduced as an integral counterpart of the Ambrosio--Tortorelli regularization, so that the characteristic length of the diffusive crack is implicitly determined by the nonlocal interaction domain rather than by a prescribed length scale.

Third, the degraded nonlocal elastic energy and the nonlocal crack-surface functional are combined into a variationally consistent dynamic fracture system, consisting of a nonlocal momentum balance and an irreversible nonlocal gradient-flow evolution law for the phase field.

The coupled system is solved using two temporal discretization strategies: a structure-preserving scalar auxiliary-variable scheme and a staggered alternating scheme, both combined with finite element discretization in space.

Numerical examples involving Mode-I fracture, dynamic crack branching, Kalthoff--Winkler-type shear fracture, and fragmentation show that the proposed model captures complex crack initiation, propagation, branching, and interaction without explicit crack tracking.

Quantitatively, the predicted crack-tip velocities remain below $0.6c_R$ in the dynamic branching and shear-loading tests, and the shear-loading benchmark gives an inclined crack path of approximately $48^\circ$, consistent with the characteristic Kalthoff--Winkler fracture pattern.