An open source tool to simulate material fractures and fatigue

The Python package PhaseFieldx, developed by researcher Miguel Castillón at Imdea Materials Institute, is featured in the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) in a paper entitled “PhaseFieldx: An Advanced Phase-Field Simulation.”

Based on the FenicsX platform, this calculator is designed to simulate material fractures and fatigue using the phase field method, an advanced approach to modeling abortions via continuous fields without the need to explicitly represent cracks.

“Phasefieldx is a tool that I’ve used as part of my doctoral dissertation,” explains Castillón.

“FenicsX, an open source platform widely used to solve partial differential equations using the finite element method, can promote complex fractures and fatigue simulations, so we decided to develop a dedicated package to optimize this type of research.”

The phase field scheme allows for the representation of fracture using continuous fields describing the transition from intact to completely damaged or broken material, avoiding the need to explicitly model cracks in simulations.

This simplifies the modelling of the fracture process for a wide range of materials, including brittle materials such as metals and crystals.

PhaseFieldx includes multiple implemented models based on the most widely used formulations in the scientific literature, allowing users to explore and compare different approaches depending on the material they want to study or the type of fracture phenomenon.

“There are many formulations aimed at studying the complex phenomena of fractures with different materials,” Castillon points out.

“PhaseFieldX makes it easy to test and implement a variety of models. We always keep each unique limitation in mind. What’s more, the software is designed to be flexible, repeatable and easy to scale.”

Another strength of the project is its accessibility. Because it is open source, anyone interested can use it, modify it and contribute to its development via GitHub.

According to Castillón, “There is no commercial program that directly implements this type of simulation. In general, additional development or specific extensions are required and are not readily available. PhaseFieldx fills that gap with an open, collaborative approach.”

The package is constantly evolving, with new features and features planned over the coming months. Additionally, researchers are working on publications that will make significant advances in fracture and fatigue research using topological field methods incorporated in future versions of PhaseFieldx.

Castillón developed Phasefieldx with Imdea Materials as a member of the Computational Solid Mechanics Research Group, led by Professor Ignacio Romero, and as a member of the Multiscale Materials Simulation Group, led by Professor Javier Segurado.