A domain decomposition approach for the simulation of fracture phenomena in polycrystalline microsystems

In this work, a domain decomposition technique is proposed to reduce the computational burden of three-dimensional numerical analyses of fracture processes in polycrystalline solids under dynamic loads. The material considered is polysilicon, which is the most widely employed structural material for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). The algorithm extends the proposal of Gravouil and Combescure (2001) to fracture processes involving the presence of discrete cracks propagating both inside the sub-domains and across the interfaces between neighbouring sub-domains. The case of brittle or quasi-brittle fracture is addressed by means of a cohesive approach. Alternative choices for the spatial subdivision strategy are compared. Numerical examples concerning known fracture tests are used for validation. Two applications to real MEMS are presented.