USACM Short Course: The Phase-Field Approach to Brittle Fracture: Theory and Numerical Implementation: August 10-13, 2026

As part of the USACM Summer School this year, my advisor, Prof. Oscar Lopez-Pamies, and Prof. John Dolbow will be offering a short course on the phase-field approach to brittle fracture. The course will be held from August 10-13, 2026, and will cover both the theory and numerical implementation of the phase-field method for modeling brittle fracture. You can find more information about the course and register here.

As a companion to the course, and to provide a practical open-source resource for the community, I have created a repository containing the code used in the lectures, which can be found here.

This repository includes an implementation of the phase-field method for brittle fracture, a simple single-edge notched test, and a comparison of the results obtained from the classical AT1 model and the complete phase-field model. Each section is designed to run smoothly on Google Colab and is explained in detail. The repository also includes scripts for more advanced examples that will be covered during the lectures.

My hope is that this repository makes the material easier to explore, reuse, and build upon for anyone interested in the phase-field approach and in open-source computational mechanics.