An Anisotropic Phase-Field Approach for Fracture of Residually Stressed Cylindrical Structures

In this work, the mechanical modeling of bio-inspired soft materials subject to residual stresses is coupled with the phase field approach to fracture. This variational approach is theoretically formulated and numerically implemented into the commercial Finite Element Method (FEM) package ABAQUS as a user subroutine material (UMAT), employing the constitutive formulation of the anisotropic hyperelastic Gasser-Ogden-Holzapfel (GOH) material. Current numerical simulations verify the capacity of the proposed formulation in capturing the deviation of the fracture depending on the fibers’ orientation and provide insight on the crack nucleation pattern in pre-stressed cylinders. The proposed framework sets the stage for its future extension for arteries modelling, where the residual stresses will play an important role in their structural integrity.