The electro-thermo-mechanical breakdown of dielectric solids is modeled using
peridynamics to describe the brittle fracture of a material under high electric fields. A
coupled electrostatic, elastodynamic, thermodynamic model is used wherein electrostatic
forces are computed and applied to the mechanical model and temperature effects are
included. Fracture is simulated using peridynamics, a reformulation of elasticity that
incorporates material failure. Coupling occurs between the electrostatic and mechanical
forces and also the electrical material properties: specifically, the Lorentz and Kelvin
forces are used to couple the electrostatic fields to the stress fields, conductivity
is treated as nonlinear and a function of temperature, and mechanical damage is used
to alter the permittivity. Results demonstrate that the method is capable of reproducing
branching breakdown patterns seen in experiments using a deterministic method.
