A hybrid discontinuous Galerkin = interface method for the computational modelling of failure

The present contribution is concerned with the computational modelling of failure along well-de ned surfaces, which occur for example in the case of light-weight composite materials. A hybrid method will be introduced which makes use of the discontinuous Galerkin method in combination with a nite element interface approach. As a natural choice interface elements are introduced along the known failure surface. The discontinuous Galerkin method is applied in the pre-failure regime to avoid the unphysical use of penalty terms and instead to enforce the continuity of the solution along the interface weakly. Once a particular failure criterion is ful lled, the behaviour of the interface is determined constitutively, depending on the displacement jump. The applicability of the proposed method is illustrated by means of two computational model problems. Copyright ? 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.