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.