Abstract
Porous media make up many of the most important materials around us. When these materials fail structurally, the results are often catastrophic. Therefore, the prediction of fracture in these materials has been a crucial focus for researchers and engineers for decades. We argue that geometric variation in microscale pore morphology affects course-scale crack propagation. We develop a framework that first calculates an effective continuum-level constitutive tensor based on asymptotic homogenization theory. This homogenized constitutive tensor serves as an input to a linear elastic brittle fracture mechanics model. This work implements the phase-field variational formulation based on Griffith’s classical energy balance to analyzes pore shapes of varying topological complexity. Here, we analyze cases with circular, rectangular, and 2 irregular pore shapes. The macroscale crack propagation and path for a 2D classical tensile loading problem can then be compared when using effective constitutive tensors corresponding to different pore-shape indices. Preliminary results show that crack advancement is appreciably altered even when porosity is held constant for pore morphologies with differing shape shapes, highlighting the need for further investigation into the relationship between pore structure and fracture behavior.