Font Size: 

A variational free-discontinuity formulation of brittle fracture was given by Francfortand Marigo [1], where the total energy is minimized with respect to the crackgeometry and the displacement field simultaneously. The entire evolution of cracksincluding their initiation and branching is determined by this minimization principlerequiring no further criterion. However, a direct numerical discretization of themodel faces considerable difficulties as the displacement field is discontinuous inthe presence of cracks.