Brittle Fragmentation: Exploring the Role of Roundoff Error in Deterministic Simulation

The problem of brittle fragmentation is known to be computationally tough, requiring a large number of degrees of freedom for convergence of the solution, even in one-dimensional problems. Here, the influence of roundoff error is studied by varying the numerical precision of a fragmentation simulation using the cohesive zone method. The application of newer fracture methods to this problem also is discussed.