A nonlocal interface approach to peridynamics exemplified by continuum-kinematics-inspired peridynamics

In this contribution, we present a novel approach on how to treat material interfaces in nonlocal models based on peridynamics (PD) and in particular continuum-kinematics-inspired peridynamics (CPD), a novel variationally consistent peridynamic formulation. Our method relies on a nonlocal interface where the material subdomains overlap. Within this region, a kinematic coupling of the two constituents is enforced. The contact is purely geometrical as interaction forces act only between points of the same material. We provide a detailed description of the computational implementation within the framework of CPD, that is in principle applicable to all formulations of PD. A variety of numerical examples for modeling bimaterial interfaces illustrate the utility of the technique for both two-dimensional and three-dimensional problems, including examples at large deformations. Our model approaches a local model when the nonlocality parameter, the horizon size, is decreased. The proposed methodology offers a viable alternative to previous approaches in PD, which are essentially imposing mixture rules for the interfacial material parameters. © 2022 The Authors. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.