%0 Journal Article %A Kabiri, Mirmohammadreza %A Vernerey, Franck J. %D 2013 %I Begell House %K concurrent multiscale method, adaptive refinement, macro-micro coupling %N 6 %P 565-580 %R 10.1615/IntJMultCompEng.2013005569 %T AN XFEM BASED MULTISCALE APPROACH TO FRACTURE OF HETEROGENEOUS MEDIA %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/61fd1b191cf7e96f,031a1f9221ddec42,60ff132125d97dc8.html %V 11 %X This paper introduces a concurrent adaptive multiscale methodology in which both macroscopic and microscopic deformation fields strongly interact. The method is based on the balance between numerical and homogenization error; while the first type of error states that the element's should be refined in regions of high deformation gradients, the second implies that elements size may not be smaller than a threshold determined by the size of the representative volume element (RVE). In this context, we introduce a multiscale method in which RVEs can be embedded in the continuum region through appropriate macro-micro boundary coupling conditions. By combining the idea of adaptive refinement with the embedded RVE method, the methodology ensures that appropriate descriptions of the material are used adequately, regardless of the severity of deformations. We show that this method, in conjunction with the extended finite element method, is ideal to study the strong interactions between a crack and the microstructure of heterogeneous media. In particular, the method enables an explicit description of microstructural features near the crack tip, while a computationally inexpensive coarse scale continuum description is used in the rest of the domain. We illustrate the method with several examples showing its accuracy and relatively low computational cost and discuss its potential in relating microstructure to the fracture toughness of a diversity of heterogeneous media. %8 2013-11-18