Charlotte Kuhn

• This thesis is concerned with a phase field model for brittle fracture. The high potential of phase field modeling in computational fracture mechanics lies in the generality of the approach and the straightforward numerical implementation, combined with a good accuracy of the results in the sense of continuum fracture mechanics. However, despite the convenient numerical application of phase field fracture models, a detailed understanding of the physical properties is crucial for a correct interpretation of the numerical results. Therefore, the driving mechanisms of crack propagation and nucleation in the proposed phase field fracture model are explored by a thorough numerical and analytical investigation in this work.