Fig. Asymmetrically notched
specimen crack phase-field contour plot in various stages
The effect of the \(q\) parameter on results in terms of crack path is
evaluated respectively in Fig.8. The Figure compares the crack path for
the four cases. For \(q=1\),
cracks initiate at the two notches and don’t propagate toward the
opposite side of the specimen. For \(q=0.8\) and \(q=0.5\) , cracks
initiate at the two notches and propagate until the middle of the
specimen. The two cracks do not merge. For \(q=0.2\), cracks initiate
and merge together, Fig.7.