Abstract
A parallelized approach for simulating tearing in thin material with a hydro-structural code is presented. The approach is built upon the shell finite element formulation and incorporates a simple remeshing scheme to facilitate material separation behind propagating tears. Tear propagation is handled using an implementation of the Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) to predict fracture based on the homogenized critical strain energy release rate (Gc). The approach is demonstrated with a simulation of an impact event from a joint JAXA/NASA series of light gas gun tests. A marked improvement in model outcome with the use of the VCCT implementation is demonstrated through quantitative and qualitative comparisons between numerical debris characteristics and experimental data.
