Phase-Field Approximation of Vectorial Cohesive Models

Abstract

We study the $\Gamma$-convergence of a general class of anisotropic phase-field functionals modelling cohesive fracture in the multidimensional, vector-valued, and geometrically nonlinear setting. The limiting energy comprises a quasiconvexified bulk term, a Cantor part governed by its recession function, and a cohesive surface energy density defined via an asymptotic cell problem. After establishing the structural properties and equivalent formulations of the limiting surface density, we show that, whenever the recession function of the elastic energy is given by the square of an operator norm compatible with the phase-field anisotropy, the vectorial cell problem explicitly reduces to a one-dimensional variational problem. As a consequence, we extend the cohesive law reconstruction procedure of \cite{alessi2025phasefieldpart2} to the vectorial framework, explicitly designing phase-field potentials that recover prescribed classes of anisotropic, jump-dependent traction-separation laws of the form $g(\zeta,\nu)=\gamma(\nu)g_{\scal}(|\zeta|)$.