This tutorial demonstrates the use of Contact Debonding feature available in Mechanical by examining the displacement of two 2D parts on a double cantilever beam. This same problem is demonstrated in VM255. The following example is provided to demonstrate the steps to setup and analyze the same model using Mechanical.
As illustrated below, a two dimensional beam has a length of 100mm and an initial crack of length of 30mm at the free end that is subjected to a maximum vertical displacement (Umax) at the top and bottom of the free end nodes. Two vertical displacements, one positive and one negative, are applied to determine the vertical reaction at the end point. The point of fracture is at the vertex of the crack and the interface edges.