A parallel discontinuous Galerkin/cohesive-zone computational framework for the simulation of fracture in shear-flexible shells

We propose a computational framework for the simulation of deformation and fracture in shells that is well suited to situations with widespread damage and fragmentation due to impulsive loading. The shell is modeled with a shear-flexible theory and discretized with a discontinuous Galerkin finite element method, while fracture is represented with a cohesive zone model on element edges. A key feature of the method is that the underlying shear-flexible shell theory enables the description of transverse shear fracture modes, in addition to the in-plane and bending modes accessible to Kirchhoff-Love thin shell formulations. This is especially important for impulsive loading conditions, where shear-off failure near stiffeners and supports is common. The discontinuous Galerkin formulation inherits the scalability properties demonstrated previously for large-scale simulation of fracture in solids, while avoiding artificial elastic compliance issues that are common in other cohesive model approaches. We demonstrate the ability of the framework to capture the transverse shear fracture mode through numerical examples, and the parallel computation capabilities of the method through the simulation of explosive decompression of the skin of a full-scale passenger aircraft fuselage.