Extended virtual element method for two-dimensional fracture modeling in linear elasticity

The virtual element method (VEM), is a stabilized Galerkin scheme deriving from mimetic finite differences, which allows for very general polygonal meshes, and does not require the explicit knowledge of the shape functions within the problem domain. In the VEM, the discrete counterpart of the continuum formulation of the problem is defined by means of a suitable projection of the virtual shape functions onto a polynomial space, which allows the decomposition of the bilinear form into a consistent part, reproducing the polynomial space, and a correction term ensuring stability. In the present contribution, we outline an extended virtual element method (X-VEM) for two-dimensional elastic fracture problems where, drawing inspiration from the extended finite element method (X-FEM), we extend the standard virtual element space with the product of vector-valued virtual nodal shape functions and suitable enrichment fields, which reproduce the singularities of the exact solution. We define an extended projection operator that maps functions in the extended virtual element space onto a set spanned by the space of linear polynomials augmented with the enrichment fields. Numerical examples in 2D elastic fracture are worked out to assess convergence and accuracy of the proposed method for both quadrilateral and general polygonal meshes.