A shifted energy barrier approach for phase-field modeling of tensile-dominated brittle fracture
The classical AT1 phase-field model contains an intrinsic energy barrier for crack nucle ation, which makes the predicted strength depend on the fracture toughness and the regularization length. For tensile-dominated brittle fracture, this barrier is shifted by mapping the Rankine criterion, evaluated on the effective stress, onto a state-dependent active-energy threshold. The prescribed tensile strength then controls crack nucleation, while the AT1 crack-density functional, stiffness degradation, and degraded stress response remain unchanged. Since the threshold depends on the current stress state, the field equations are derived from a restricted variational principle. A microforce formulation identifies the barrier shift as a dissipative resistance and provides the corresponding lower bound on the regularization length. In one-dimensional tension, closed-form solutions recover the prescribed peak strength and give a cosine-type localization profile that ap proaches the classical AT1 profile as the shift vanishes. Numerical examples show that, within the admissible range, the nucleation load is nearly insensitive to the regularization length and the predicted multiaxial nucleation states follow the Rankine envelope. Under overall compression, crack nucleation remains associated with local tensile stress concen trations. The formulation also captures the transition from strength-controlled failure for small flaws to the LEFM limit for large cracks.