On the coupling of peridynamics with the classical theory of continuum mechanics in a meshless framework

The classical theory of solid mechanics employs partial derivatives in the equation of motion and hence requires the differentiability of the displacement field. Such an assumption breaks down when simulation of problems containing discontinuities, such as cracks, comes into the picture. peridynamics is considered to be an alternative and promising nonlocal theory of solid mechanics that is formulated suitably for discontinuous problems. Peridynamics is well designed to cope with failure analysis as the theory deals with integral equations rather than partial differential equations. Indeed, peridynamics defines the equation of motion by substituting the divergence of the stress tensor, involved in the formulation of the classical theory, with an integral operator. One of the most common techniques to discretize and implement the theory is based on a meshless approach. However, the method is computationally more expensive than some meshless methods based on the classical theory. This originates from the fact that in peridynamics, similar to other nonlocal theories, each computational node interacts with many neighbors over a finite region. To this end, performing realistic numerical simulations with peridynamics entails a vast amount of computational resources. Moreover, the application of boundary conditions in peridynamics is nonlocal and hence it is more challenging than the application of boundary conditions adopted by methods based on the classical continuum theory. This issue is well-known to scientists working on peridynamics. Therefore, it is reasonable to couple computational methods based on classical continuum mechanics with others based on peridynamics to develop an approach that applies different computational techniques where they are most suited for. The main purpose of this dissertation is to develop an effective coupled nonlocal/local meshless technique for the solution of two-dimensional elastodynamic problems involving brittle crack propagation. This method is based on a coupling between the peridynamic meshless method, and other meshless methods based on the classical continuum theory. In this study, two different meshless methods, the Meshless Local Exponential Basis Functions and the Finite Point Method are chosen as both are classified within the category of strong form meshless methods, which are simple and computationally cheap. The coupling has been achieved in a completely meshless scheme. The domain is divided in three zones: one in which only peridynamics is applied, one in which only the meshless method is applied and a transition zone where a transition between the two approaches takes place. The coupling adopts a local/nonlocal framework that benefits from the full advantages of both methods while overcoming their limitations. The parts of the domain where cracks either exist or are likely to propagate are described by peridynamics; the remaining part of the domain is described by the meshless method that requires less computational effort. We shall show that the proposed approach is suited for adaptive coupling of the strategies in the solution of crack propagation problems. Several static and dynamic examples are performed to demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed approach.