We present a multiphysics phase-field fracture model for thermo-elasto-plastic solids in the context of finite deformation and apply it to simulate the hot cracking phenomenon during metal additive manufacturing. The model is derived in a thermodynamically consistent manner, with the intercoupling mechanisms among elastoplasticity, phase-field crack and heat transfer comprehensively considered. It involves particularly coupled parameters among these materials physics, e.g. plasticity-dependent degradation function and fracture toughness, damage-dependent yield surface and thermal properties, and temperature-dependent elastoplastic properties and fracture strength. The finite element implementation of the coupled phase-field model is benchmarked with simulation results of a tensile test of an I-shape specimen, encompassing elastoplasticity, hardening, necking, crack initiation and propagation, in contrast to the related experimental results. The validated model is further employed to simulate the multiphysics hot cracking phenomenon in additive manufacturing in the context of both the effective powder-bed model and the powder-resolved model thanks to prior non-isothermal phase-field powder-bed-fusion simulations. Simulation results reveal certain key features of the hot crack and its dependency on process parameters like beam power and scan speed, which are helpful for the fundamental understanding of crack formation mechanisms and process optimization.

Thermal fracture is prevalent in many engineering problems and is one of the most devastating defects in metal additive manufacturing. Due to the interactive underlying physics involved, the computational simulation of such a process is challenging. In this work, we propose a thermo-mechanical phase-field fracture model, which is based on a thermodynamically consistent derivation. The influence of different coupling terms such as damage-informed thermomechanics and heat conduction and temperature-dependent fracture properties, as well as different phase-field fracture formulations, are discussed. The model is numerically implemented with the finite element method. Finally, the model is applied to simulate the hot cracking in additive manufacturing. Thereby not only the thermal strain but also the solidification shrinkage is considered. As for the thermal profile, both analytical temperature solution and numerical thermal field around the melting pool are taken into account. Based on the latter approach, the influence of different process parameters is further studied. The study reveals that the solidification shrinkage strain takes a dominant role in the formation of the circumferential crack, while the temperature gradient is mostly responsible for the central crack. Process parameter study demonstrates further that a higher laser power and slower scanning speed are favorable for keyhole mode hot cracking while a lower laser power and quicker scanning speed tend to form the conduction mode cracking. The numerical predictions of the hot cracking patterns are in good agreement with similar experimental observations, showing the capability of the model for further studies.

In the context of computational modeling of fracture in chemo-mechanical environments, physically-sound and strong coupling between different fields is essential. Furthermore, our knowledge of the fracture in a purely mechanical setting should be extended to the new realm adequately. In this work, we apply the cohesive phase-field (CPF) fracture models to address damage initiation and progression in a chemo-mechanical coupled environment. Since CPF models are shown to be independent of the length scale parameter, such models allow a unified simulation framework for bulk and interface damages that concurrently and competitively occur in the battery materials. First, a thermodynamical framework is discussed to obtain all the possible coupling terms consistently. Through a systematic derivation from dissipation inequality and by performing various studies, we intend to comparatively demonstrate the role of different coupling terms and their impact on the obtained results. Specifically, we focus on (1) the influence of the stress field as well as the damage variable on the flux vector, (2) concentration-dependent fracture properties, (3) advantages of cohesive phase-field formulation in the multiphysics environment, and (4) influence of phase-transformation on the cracking mechanism in solids. Finally, we present some initial studies on a simplified system of a solid-state battery system, where cracking inside a single crystalline active material surrounded by a solid electrolyte is under focus. The results of the study show the dominant crack patterns. Such investigations open up opportunities for better design of battery microstructures and enhance their lifetime and performance at the cell level.

The extrusion-based additive manufacturing (AM) is currently the most common there-dimensional (3D) printing for the fabrication of polymer components. In this study, the fracture behavior of 3D-printed polymer parts is investigated. To this aim, polylactic acid material (PLA) was used to print intact and defected specimens based on the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process. The specimens were printed with three different raster directions to determine their effect on the fracture behavior of the parts. Moreover, wood-reinforced PLA material was used to print another group of test coupons. All specimens were subjected to a series of tensile tests and their fracture behaviors are investigated. Based on the comparison of the results, the influence of reinforcement is determined. In addition, parallel to the experiments, a series of finite element analyses were conducted utilizing the anisotropic phase-field fracture model. For an efficient calculation, we treated the whole specimen as a homogenized solid where the anisotropic property of the layered material is considered in the formulation. By calibrating the model based on the experimental measurement, one can predict the anisotropic fracture behavior of the 3D-printed part with high precision. Since applications of 3D-printed composites have been significantly increased, the results of this study can be used for optimization, further numerical analysis, and next development.