Ambrosio-Tortorelli approximation of quasi-static evolution of brittle fractures (Q1763134)

The author defines a notion of quasi-static evolution for the elliptic approximation of the Mumford-Shah functional proposed by \textit{L. Ambrosio} and \textit{V. M. Tortorelli} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 43, No. 8, 999--1036 (1990; Zbl 0722.49020), Boll. Unione Mat. Ital., VII. Ser., B 6, No. 1, 105--123 (1992; Zbl 0776.49029)]. The quasi-static evolution for the Ambrosio-Tortorelli functional is obtained through a discretization in time procedure: each step is performed using a variational argument which gives the minimal properties. The author proves that this regular evolution converges to a quasi-static growth of brittle fractures in linearly elastic bodies in the sense of Francfort-Larsen.