ABSTRACT
Fracture mechanical investigations are of special importance for rubber materials. In order to predict the safety and durability of a component by a finite element simulation, the fracture mechanical sensitivity as well as the potential crack path have to be investigated. Common approaches to simulate the propagation of cracks include the application of softening material formulations to continuum elements leading to a smeared representation of the crack path or the application of adaptive crack propagation algorithms. However, these strategies are not able to represent the process of crack growth within the process zone. In contrast, the implementation of cohesive surfaces between the continuum finite elements in order to model discrete cracks provides a mesh independent framework to represent failure processes.
