In this contribution, a time homogenization (TH) scheme is utilized to accelerate the com- putational simulation of fatigue induced crack propagation in engineering materials, specifically fo- cusing on concrete subjected to cyclic loads. The proposed approach segregates the problem into…
In this contribution, a time homogenization (TH) scheme is utilized to accelerate the com- putational simulation of fatigue induced crack propagation in engineering materials, specifically fo- cusing on concrete subjected to cyclic loads. The proposed approach segregates the problem into distinct micro- and macro-time scales, improving computational efficiency by extrapolating internal variables linked to material fatigue. This method, originally applied to multi-scale problems such as tire life cycle analysis, is now adapted to model fatigue induced damage in concrete structures. Themodelisbuiltonamodifiedphase-fieldformulationthatconsidersmaterialdegradationdueto fatigue and the Representative Crack Element formulation as an energy split. The time homogeniza- tion accelerates the simulation by upscaling micro-scale behavior over extended macro-time periods. The model performance has been previously tested against high-fidelity simulations and it has been demonstrated the method’s potential to effectively model crack growth under various loading condi- tions. The novelty of this approach lies in its application of a methodology based on computational homogenization to fracture mechanics. By utilizing this framework, the computational burden is significantly reduced, providing results that approximate high-fidelity simulations with much shorter processing times. In this contribution, the time homogenization scheme is extended to experimental validation, utilizing data from fatigue tests. A comparison between simulation results and experi- mental observations is presented, demonstrating the method’s accuracy in replicating crack growth patterns and fatigue behavior. The results confirm that the time homogenization approach offers a re- liable and efficient alternative to traditional methods, particularly in high-cycle fatigue cases, reducing computational time without sacrificing accuracy.