Alba Muixí received the Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and the Master in Advanced Mathematics and Mathematical Engineering from Facultat de Matemàtiques i Estadística (UPC) in 2015 and 2016, respectively. From April 2017, she is a PhD candidate at LaCàN research group, where she focuses on the simulation of crack propagation using advanced discretization methods.

Phase-field models for brittle fracture are based on an energetic formulation of the problem, in which cracks are considered as diffuse interfaces in the material. The main advantage of phase-field models is their ability to handle naturally the propagation, nucleation and branching of cracks. In this talk, an overview of the phase-field approaches developed in the mechanics community will be given, focusing on quasi-static models with a tension-compression split to prevent cracks in compressed regions of the material. Also, we will motivate why HDG is a good option to solve crack problems with multibranching.