In this paper, a new crack surface energy for the simulation of ductile fracture is proposed, which is based on the Allen–Cahn theory of diffuse interfaces. In contrast to existing fracture approaches, here, the crack surface energy density is a double-well potential based on a new interpretation of the crack surface. That is, the energy associated with the whole diffuse region between the fully cracked and intact regions is interpreted as crack surface energy. This kind of formulation, on the one hand, results in the balance of micromechanical forces and on the other hand, is a priori thermodynamically consistent. Furthermore, the proposed formulation is based on a gamma-convergent interface energy and it is in agreement with the classical solution of Irwin (Appl Mech Trans ASME E24:351–369, 1957). It is shown that in contrast to existing models, crack irreversibility is automatically fulfilled and no further constraints related to neither local nor global irreversibility are needed. To also account for potential plastic shear band localization, the approach is extended by a micromorphic plasticity model. By analyzing two different classical numerical benchmark problems, the proposed formulation is shown to enable mesh-independent results which are in agreement with the results of competing approaches.
