diffcohesive

A GPU-accelerated, end-to-end differentiable cohesive-zone fracture solver for gradient-based identification of analytic and neural-network-based traction-separation laws. Built on TensorMesh.

What this is (packaging / architecture)

diffcohesive is a standalone, pip-installable Python package (a library with its own API), not a TensorMesh plugin or fork. TensorMesh is a dependency (tensormesh-fem on PyPI), used for one thing: assembling the bulk-elasticity stiffness from its native element library. Everything cohesive -- interface insertion, the zero-thickness cohesive element, the traction-separation laws, the nonlinear solvers (Newton + Crisfield arc-length with increment cutting), and the implicit-differentiation adjoint -- lives in this package. TensorMesh has no plugin mechanism and its assembly is hard-wired to one-DOF-set-per-mesh-node, which is why cohesive elements are realized by mesh-level node duplication feeding a custom assembly rather than injected into TensorMesh itself.

pip install diffcohesive   # released on PyPI

# or, for development, from a clone:
pip install -e ".[dev]"    # editable install + pytest
python -m pytest tests/    # full validation suite (75 tests)

Installing as a top-up to an existing TensorMesh environment (the normal case). Run pip install diffcohesive inside the environment where tensormesh-fem and your (CUDA) PyTorch already live — pip then reports every dependency as already satisfied and adds only the ~50 kB diffcohesive package itself. Run in a bare environment instead, pip must build the whole stack from scratch, and on Windows/PyPI that means the CPU-only torch wheel: if you want GPU, install the CUDA build of PyTorch from pytorch.org first, then pip install diffcohesive on top. A wheel never bundles its dependencies — tensormesh-fem requiring torch does not mean it contains torch; pip installs each package of the tree separately, once per environment.

Supported TensorMesh versions and upgrading

diffcohesive touches only TensorMesh's stable core (Mesh, LinearElasticityElementAssembler, sparse-matrix export), so TensorMesh's 0.2.0 additions (mixed multi-field assembly, distributed FEM, wave operators) neither affect nor constrain it. Verified combinations (full test suite + CPU-vs-CUDA end-to-end solve/adjoint comparison at machine precision + functional GPU sparse-solve checks):

The one rule for the GPU stack: keep everything on the same CUDA major line as your torch build (+cu128 → cupy-cuda12x, nvmath-python[cu12], nvidia-cudss-cu12). No extra can install the CUDA build of torch itself — get that from PyTorch's own selector first; the extras then match around it. To upgrade an existing CUDA-12 environment, one command:

pip install -U "tensormesh-fem[cudss]"   # Windows and Linux: TM 0.2 + torch-sla 0.3 + cuDSS chain

(On Linux, tensormesh-fem[gpu] also works and adds PyAMG. Do not use [gpu] on Windows: it requires torch-sla[all], whose torch-amgx backend ships no Windows wheels, so pip's resolver fails.) diffcohesive's GPU execution (model.to('cuda')) uses torch.linalg directly and needs none of the extras; torch-sla's cudss/CuPy backends activate automatically when the cu12 libraries in the table are present (torch_sla.show_backends() to confirm; verified here: cuDSS direct solve on an assembled stiffness agrees with a dense reference to ~5e-15).

Quickstart: a differentiable DCB in ~20 lines

import torch
from diffcohesive.mesh import build_double_cantilever_mesh
from diffcohesive.laws import BilinearMixedModeTSL
from diffcohesive.assembly import CohesiveMeshModel
from diffcohesive.solvers import newton_solve
from diffcohesive.diff import solve_diff, theta_from_law

# 1. FE model: DCB with a 5 mm pre-crack, cohesive elements on the bonded ligament
mesh = build_double_cantilever_mesh(length=15.0, arm_height=1.0,
                                    crack_length=5.0, nx=30, ny=4)
law = BilinearMixedModeTSL(T_max_n=5.0, T_max_s=5.0, G_c1=0.05, G_c2=0.05, K=1e4)
model = CohesiveMeshModel(mesh.points, {mesh.cell_type: mesh.elements},
                          mesh.cohesive_connectivity, law, E=1000.0, nu=0.3)

# 2. boundary conditions: clamp the far edge, open the arm tips by +/- d/2
right = model.dof_indices(mesh.right_edge_nodes)
tip_t = model.dof_indices(torch.tensor([mesh.tip_top]))[1]
tip_b = model.dof_indices(torch.tensor([mesh.tip_bottom]))[1]
d = 0.3
dofs = torch.cat([right, tip_t.reshape(1), tip_b.reshape(1)])
vals = torch.cat([torch.zeros(right.numel(), dtype=torch.float64),
                  torch.tensor([d/2, -d/2], dtype=torch.float64)])

# 3a. plain forward solve...
result = newton_solve(model, dofs, vals, model.init_history())
print("reaction:", result.reaction[-2].item(), "max damage:", result.damage.max().item())

# 3b. ...or a DIFFERENTIABLE solve: d(anything)/d(law parameters) via the adjoint
theta = theta_from_law(law).requires_grad_(True)
u_star = solve_diff(theta, model, dofs, vals, model.init_history())
u_star.norm().backward()
print("d||u||/d(T_max, G_c, ...):", theta.grad)

This quickstart ships as a runnable script: examples/quickstart_dcb.py needs only the installed package (python quickstart_dcb.py from anywhere). examples/README.md separates what runs pip-only from the validation studies that are run from a repository clone.

3D is the same API with build_double_cantilever_mesh_3d (hexahedra + 8-node cohesive faces); orthotropic bulk plugs in via bulk_stiffness=assemble_cst_stiffness(pts, tris, orthotropic_plane_C(E1=..., E2=..., nu12=..., G12=...)). Every validation figure is regenerated by a committed script under examples/ or benchmarks/.

Supported elements and bulk constitutive models

Interface insertion: edge-based in 2D (insert_cohesive_interface, any cyclically-ordered element type) and face-based in 3D (insert_cohesive_interface_3d, hexahedra), both with connected-components node duplication, partial bonding (pre-cracks), and opening-positive orientation. Multiple candidate paths may be inserted simultaneously -- the mechanics then selects the failing path (examples/crack_path_selection.py).

Traction-separation laws

• BilinearMixedModeTSL -- Camanho-Davila/Alfano-Crisfield bilinear with Turon mixed-mode onset/final-displacement closure and a choice of mixed-mode fracture criterion: Benzeggagh-Kenane (mixed_mode_criterion="bk") or the power law ("power", (G_I/G_Ic)^a + (G_II/G_IIc)^a = 1). Fully differentiable / calibratable.
• Shape library (laws/shapes.py, after Alfano CST 66 (2006) 723-730): bilinear, linear-parabolic, exponential, trapezoidal envelopes from identical (K0, sigma0, Gc), with closed-form internal parameters verified against the paper's own computed values.
• FrictionalCohesiveTSL (laws/friction.py, after Alfano & Sacco IJNME 68 (2006) 542-582): interface damage combined with Coulomb friction acting on the damaged area fraction -- residual shear = mu*|contact stress| after full decohesion, dissipation = G_c + friction work.
• NeuralMonotoneTSL -- monotone neural damage law (architecturally admissible: D in [0,1], dD/dkappa >= 0), calibratable by the same gradient loop.

Validation (all regenerable from examples/ and tests/)

• Mode I DCB vs LEFM beam theory (~2% pre-peak compliance) and an independent Abaqus COH2D4 reference model on the identical mesh (~5% peak load) -- abaqus/dcb/.
• Alfano CST 2006 benchmark suite (examples/alfano_shape_study.py): thin DCB (shape-insensitivity), thick DCB and rigid compact specimen (peak-load ordering trapezoidal > linear-parabolic > bilinear ~ exponential, as in the paper's Figs 6/8), and the mode II pull-out test (load-displacement curve inheriting the interface-law shape, paper's Fig 10).
• Mixed mode at the mesh level: dissipated energy matches the BK prediction to <0.6% across the full mode-mix sweep (examples/mixed_mode_beam.py); power-law criterion validated at the point level.
• Friction: constitutive and mesh-level Coulomb checks (tests/laws/test_friction.py, tests/assembly/test_friction_mesh.py).
• Crack initiation & propagation made explicit (examples/crack_propagation.py): damage front vs LEFM crack-length prediction, process-zone profiles, deformed meshes.
• Mesh/process-zone convergence (examples/convergence_study.py).
• Gradients: implicit-diff adjoint vs finite differences on every parameter, single-step and multi-step (path-dependent history) -- the package's core claim (tests/diff/).
• GPU: CUDA forward/adjoint correctness + vmap-batched Newton over parameter populations (7-55x wall-clock, benchmarks/).

Layout

• diffcohesive/laws/ -- traction-separation laws (bilinear+BK/power, shape library, friction, neural), smoothed primitives.
• diffcohesive/mesh/ -- cohesive node-duplication insertion (tri/quad), DCB and pull-out specimen builders.
• diffcohesive/elements/ -- cohesive element residual/tangent (autograd).
• diffcohesive/assembly/, diffcohesive/solvers/, diffcohesive/diff/ -- global assembly (vmap-vectorized), nonlinear solvers (Newton with increment cutting, adaptive Crisfield arc-length, batched Newton), implicit-diff adjoint (single and multi-step).
• diffcohesive/calibration/ -- losses (single-step and path-consistent), Adam->L-BFGS, GA baseline.
• examples/, benchmarks/, tests/ -- validation scripts (DCB, mixed-mode, shape study, crack propagation), performance/cross-code benchmarks, test suite.
• abaqus/ -- independent Abaqus COH2D4 reference models (input-deck generators, extraction and comparison scripts) used for the cross-check validations.

Known limitations, stated openly: 3D is validated against beam theory and element-level gates but not yet against a 3D Abaqus/literature benchmark; orthotropic bulk is 2D/CST only; no literal ENF/MMB contact fixtures (no contact/no-penetration formulation beyond the interface's own compression penalty); crack paths are limited to supplied candidate interfaces.