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# A discontinuous finite element approximation of quasi-static growth of brittle fractures

## 1. Introduction

In this paper we formulate a discontinuous finite element approximation for a model of quasi-static growth of brittle fractures in linearly elastic bodies proposed by Francfort and Marigo . Their model is based on the classical Griffith’s criterion which involves a competition between bulk and surface energies. To be precise, let $`\mathrm{\Omega }^3`$ be an elastic body, $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ be a part of its boundary and let $`g:_D\mathrm{\Omega }^3`$ be the spatial displacement of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ at the points of $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$. According to Griffith’s theory, given a preexisting crack $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$, the new crack $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and the displacement $`u:\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Gamma }^3`$ associated to $`g`$ at the equilibrium minimizes the following energy

(1.1)
$$(v,g,\mathrm{\Gamma }):=_\mathrm{\Omega }\mu |Ev|^2+\frac{\lambda }{2}|\mathrm{div}v|^2dx+^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }),$$

among all cracks $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and all displacements $`v:\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Gamma }^3`$ with $`v=g`$ on $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Here $`Ev`$ denotes the symmetric part of the gradient of $`v`$, and $`^2`$ denotes the two dimensional Hausdorff measure, while $`\mu `$ and $`\lambda `$ are the Lamé coefficients. The boundary condition is required only on $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ because the displacement in a fractured region is assumed not to be transmitted. Let us indicate by $`(g,\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ the minimum value of (1.1) among all $`v:\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Gamma }^3`$ with $`v=g`$ on $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

Supposing that the boundary displacement $`g`$ varies with the time $`t[0,1]`$, the quasi-static evolution $`t\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)`$ proposed in  requires that:

* $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)`$ is increasing in time, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(t_1)\mathrm{\Gamma }(t_2)`$ for all $`0t_1t_21`$ (irreversibility of the process);
*
* $`(g(t),\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))(g(t),\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ for all cracks $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ such that $`_{s<t}\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (equilibrium condition);
*
* the total energy $`(g(t),\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))`$ is absolutely continuous in time and (conservation of energy)

$$\frac{d}{dt}(g(t),\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))=2\mu _\mathrm{\Omega }Eu(t)E\dot{g}(t)𝑑x+\lambda _\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{div}u(t)\mathrm{div}\dot{g}(t)𝑑x.$$

A precise mathematical formulation of this model has been given by Dal Maso and Toader  in the case of anti-planar shear in dimension two assuming that the fractures are compact sets with a finite number of connected components. Recently Francfort and Larsen , using the framework of $`SBV`$-functions, proved the existence of a quasi-static growth of brittle fractures in the case of generalized anti-planar shear and without assumptions on the structure of the fractures which are dealt with the set of jumps of the displacements. To be precise, they consider as elastic body an infinite cylinder whose section $`\mathrm{\Omega }^N`$ is subject to a displacement $`uSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ in the direction orthogonal to $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. The crack at time $`t`$ on the section $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is defined as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(t):=\underset{s<t}{}\left[S_{u(s)}(_D\mathrm{\Omega }\{u(s)g(s)\})\right],$$

where $`S_u`$ denotes the set of jumps of $`u`$. Moreover the pair $`(u(t),\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))`$ is such that:

* for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$

(1.2)
$$_\mathrm{\Omega }|u(t)|^2𝑑x+^{N1}(\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))_\mathrm{\Omega }|v|^2𝑑x+^{N1}(S_v(_D\mathrm{\Omega }\{vg(t)\})\mathrm{\Gamma }(t));$$
*
* the total energy $`(t):=_\mathrm{\Omega }|u(t)|^2𝑑x+^{N1}(\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))`$ is absolutely continuous and

(1.3)
$$(t)=(0)+2_0^t_\mathrm{\Omega }u(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau .$$

The aim of this paper is to discretize the model using a suitable finite element method and to a give a rigorous proof of its convergence to a quasi-static evolution in the sense of Francfort and Larsen. We restrict our analysis to a two dimensional setting considering only a polygonal reference configuration $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2`$.

The discretization of the domain $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is carried out, following , considering two parameters $`\epsilon >0`$ and $`a]0,\frac{1}{2}[`$ . We consider a regular triangulation $`𝐑_\epsilon `$ of size $`\epsilon `$ of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, i.e. we assume that there exist two constants $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$ so that every triangle $`T𝐑_\epsilon `$ contains a ball of radius $`c_1\epsilon `$ and is contained in a ball of radius $`c_2\epsilon `$. In order to treat the boundary data, we assume also that $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is composed of edges of $`𝐑_\epsilon `$. On each edge $`[x,y]`$ of $`𝐑_\epsilon `$ we consider a point $`z`$ such that $`z=tx+(1t)y`$ with $`t[a,1a]`$. These points are called adaptive vertices. Connecting together the adaptive vertices, we divide every $`T𝐑_\epsilon `$ into four triangles. We take the new triangulation $`𝐓`$ obtained after this division as the discretization of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. The family of all such triangulations is denoted by $`𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$.

The discretization of the energy functional is obtained restricting the total energy to the family of functions $`u`$ which are affine on the triangles of some triangulation $`𝐓(u)𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ and are allowed to jump across the edges of $`𝐓(u)`$. We indicate this space by $`𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$. The boundary data is assumed to belong to the space $`𝒜_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ of continuous functions which are affine on every triangle $`T𝐑_\epsilon `$.

Given the boundary data $`gW^{1,1}([0,1],H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }))`$ with $`g(t)𝒜_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$, we divide $`[0,1]`$ into subintervals $`[t_i^\delta ,t_{i+1}^\delta ]`$ of size $`\delta >0`$ for $`i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta `$, we set $`g_i^\delta =g(t_i^\delta )`$, and for all $`u𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ we indicate by $`S_D^{g_i^\delta }(u)`$ the edges of the triangulation $`𝐓(u)`$ contained in $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ on which $`ug_i^\delta `$. Using a variational argument we construct a discrete evolution $`\{u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}:i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta \}`$ such that $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for all $`i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta `$, and such that considering the discrete fracture

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}:=\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}\left[S_{u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,r}}S_D^{g_r^\delta }(u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,r})\right],$$

the following unilateral minimality property holds:

(1.4)
$$_\mathrm{\Omega }|u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}|^2𝑑x_\mathrm{\Omega }|v|^2𝑑x+^1\left(\left(S_vS_D^{g_i^\delta }(v)\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}\right).$$

Moreover we get suitable estimates for the discrete total energy

$$_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}:=u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}_{L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)}^2+^1\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}\right).$$

The definition of the discrete fracture ensures that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}`$ for all $`ij`$, recovering in this discrete setting the irreversibilty of the growth given in $`(1)`$. The minimality property (1.4) is the reformulation in the finite element space of the equilibrium condition $`(2)`$.

In order to perform the asymptotic analysis of the discrete evolution $`\{u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}:i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta \}`$, we make the piecewise constant interpolation in time $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)=u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}`$ for all $`t_i^\delta t<t_{i+1}^\delta `$. The main result of the paper is the following theorem.

###### Theorem 1.1.

Let $`gW^{1,1}([0,1],H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }))`$ be such that $`g(t)_{\mathrm{}}C`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$ and let $`g_\epsilon W^{1,1}([0,1],H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }))`$ be such that $`g_\epsilon (t)_{\mathrm{}}C`$, $`g_\epsilon (t)𝒜_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$ and

(1.5)
$$g_\epsilon g\text{ strongly in }W^{1,1}([0,1],H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })).$$

Given the discrete evolution $`\{tu_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)\}`$ relative to the boundary data $`g_\epsilon `$, let $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta `$ and $`_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta `$ be the associated fracture and total energy.

Then there exist $`\delta _n0`$, $`\epsilon _n0`$, $`a_n0`$, and a quasi-static evolution $`\{t(u(t),\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)),t[0,1]\}`$ relative to the boundary data $`g`$, satisfying (1.2) and (1.3), and such that setting $`u_n:=u_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n:=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}`$, $`_n:=_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}`$, the following hold:

* if $`𝒩`$ is the set of discontinuities of $`^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$, for all $`t[0,1]𝒩`$ we have

(1.6)
$$u_n(t)u(t)\text{ strongly in }L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)$$

and

(1.7)
$$\underset{n}{lim}^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }_n(t))=^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }(t));$$
*
* for all $`t[0,1]`$ we have

(1.8)
$$\underset{n}{lim}_n(t)=(t).$$

We conclude that we have the convergence of the total energy at each time $`t[0,1]`$, and the separate convergence of bulk and surface energy for all $`t[0,1]`$ except a countable set.

In order to prove Theorem 1.1, we proceed in two steps. Firstly, we fix $`a`$ and let $`\delta 0`$ and $`\epsilon 0`$. We obtain an evolution $`\{tu_a(t):t[0,1]\}`$ such that $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)u_a(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$ for all $`t`$ up to a countable set and such that the following minimality property holds: for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$

(1.9)
$$_\mathrm{\Omega }|u_a(t)|^2𝑑x_\mathrm{\Omega }|v|^2𝑑x+\mu (a)^1\left(\left(S_v(_D\mathrm{\Omega }\{vg(t)\})\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)\right),$$

where $`\mu :]0,\frac{1}{2}[]0,+\mathrm{}[`$ is a function independent of $`\epsilon `$ and $`\delta `$, such that $`\mu 1`$, $`lim_{a0}\mu (a)=1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t):=_{st,sD}S_{u_a(s)}(_D\mathrm{\Omega }\{u_a(s)g(s)\})`$. The minimality property (1.9) takes into account possible anisotropies that could be generated as $`\delta `$ and $`\epsilon 0`$: in fact, since $`a`$ is fixed, we have that the angles of the triangles in $`𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ are between fixed values (determined by $`a`$), and so fractures with certain directions cannot be approximated in length. In the second step, we let $`a0`$ and determine from $`\{tu_a(t):t[0,1]\}`$ a quasi-static evolution $`\{tu(t):t[0,1]\}`$ in the sense of Francfort and Larsen. Then, using a diagonal argument, we find sequences $`\delta _n0`$, $`\epsilon _n0`$, and $`a_n0`$ satisfying Theorem 1.1.

The main difficulties arise in the first part of our analysis, namely when $`\delta ,\epsilon 0`$. The convergence $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)u_a(t)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for $`tD[0,1]`$ countable and dense is easily obtained by means of Ambrosio’s Compactness Theorem. The minimality property (1.9) derives from its discrete version (1.4) using a variant of Lemma 1.2 of : given $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, we construct $`v_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta 𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that

(1.10)
$$v_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta v\text{ strongly in }L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)$$

and

(1.11)
$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{\delta ,\epsilon 0}{lim\; sup}^1\left[\left(S_{v_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta }S_D^{g_\epsilon ^\delta (t)}(v_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta )\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)\right]\hfill \\ \hfill \mu (a)^1\left[\left(S_v\left(_D\mathrm{\Omega }\{vg(t)\}\right)\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)\right],\end{array}$$

where $`g_\epsilon ^\delta (t):=g_\epsilon (t_i^\delta )`$ for $`t_i^\delta t<t_{i+1}^\delta `$. The main difference with respect to Lemma 1.2 of  is that we have to find the approximating functions $`v_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta `$ in the finite element space $`𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$. This can be regarded as an interpolation problem, so we try to construct triangulations $`𝐓_\epsilon 𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ adapted to $`v`$ in order to obtain (1.10) and (1.11). In all the geometric operations involved, we need to avoid degeneration of the triangles of $`𝐓(u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t))`$ which is guaranteed from the fact that $`a`$ is constant: this is the principal reason to keep $`a`$ fixed in the first step. A second difficulty arises when $`u_a()`$ is extended from $`D`$ to the entire interval $`[0,1]`$: indeed it is no longer clear whether $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)u_a(t)`$ for $`tD`$. Since the space $`𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ is not a vector space, we cannot provide an estimate on $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (s)`$ with $`sD`$ and $`s<t`$: we thus cannot expect to recover the convergence at time $`t`$ from the convergence at time $`s`$. We overcome this difficulty observing that $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)\stackrel{~}{u}_a`$ with $`\stackrel{~}{u}_a`$ satisfying a minimality property similar to (1.9) and then proving $`\stackrel{~}{u}_a=u_a(t)`$ by a uniqueness argument for the gradients of the solutions.

The plan of the paper is the following. In Section 2 we give the basic definitions and prove some auxiliary results. In Section 3, we prove the existence of a discrete evolution. In Section 4 we prove the convergence of the discrete evolution to a quasi-static evolution of brittle fractures in the sense of Francfort and Larsen. The proof of minimality property (1.9) requires a careful analysis to which is dedicated Section 5. In Section 6 we show that the arguments of Section 4 can be used to improve the convergence results for the discrete in time approximation considered in .

## 2. Preliminaries

In this section we state the notation and prove some preliminaries employed in the rest of the paper.

Basic notation. We will employ the following basic notation:

* $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is a polygonal open subset of $`^2`$;
* $`L^p(\mathrm{\Omega };^m)`$ with $`1p<+\mathrm{}`$ and $`m1`$ is the usual Lebesgue space of $`p`$-summable $`^m`$-valued functions, and $`L^p(\mathrm{\Omega }):=L^p(\mathrm{\Omega };)`$;
* for all $`k1`$ and $`1p+\mathrm{}`$, $`W^{k,p}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ is the usual Sobolev space of functions in $`L^p(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ with distributional derivatives of order $`1,\mathrm{},k`$ in $`L^p(\mathrm{\Omega })`$; we will write $`H^k(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for $`W^{k,2}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$;
* if $`uW^{k,p}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, $`u`$ is its gradient;
* $`^1`$ is the one-dimensional Hausdorff measure;
* $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ denotes the sup-norm;
* if $`fL^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^m)`$, $`f`$ denotes the $`L^2`$-norm of $`f`$;
* for all $`A^2`$, $`|A|`$ denotes the Lebesgue measure of $`A`$;
* if $`\mu `$ is a measure on $`^2`$ and $`A`$ is a Borel subset of $`^2`$, $`\mu \text{ }\text{ }A`$ denotes the restriction of $`\mu `$ to $`A`$, i.e. $`(\mu \text{ }\text{ }A)(B):=\mu (BA)`$ for all Borel sets $`B^2`$;
* if $`\sigma ]0,+\mathrm{}[`$, $`o_\sigma `$ is such that $`lim_{\sigma 0^+}o_\sigma =0`$.

Special functions of bounded variation. For the general theory of functions of bounded variation, we refer to ; here we recall some basic definitions and theorems we need in the sequel. Let $`A`$ be an open subset of $`^N`$, and let $`u:A^n`$. We say that $`uBV(A;^n)`$ if $`uL^1(A;^n)`$, and its distributional derivative is a vector-valued Radon measure on $`A`$. We say that $`uSBV(A;^n)`$ if $`uBV(A;^n)`$ and its distributional derivative can be represented as

$$Du(A)=_Au(x)𝑑x+_{AS_u}(u^+(x)u^{}(x))\nu _x𝑑^{N1}(x),$$

where $`u`$ denotes the approximate gradient of $`u`$, $`S_u`$ denotes the set of approximate jumps of $`u`$, $`u^+`$ and $`u^{}`$ are the traces of $`u`$ on $`S_u`$, $`\nu _x`$ is the normal to $`S_u`$ at $`x`$, and $`^{N1}`$ is the $`(N1)`$-dimensional Hausdorff measure. The space $`SBV(A;^n)`$ is called the space of special functions of bounded variation. Note that if $`uSBV(A;^n)`$, then the singular part of $`Du`$ is concentrated on $`S_u`$ which turns out to be countably $`^{N1}`$-rectifiable.

The space $`SBV`$ is very useful when dealing with variational problems involving volume and surface energies because of the following compactness and lower semicontinuity result due to L.Ambrosio (see , , , ).

###### Theorem 2.1.

Let $`A`$ be an open and bounded subset of $`^N`$, and let $`(u_k)`$ be a sequence in $`SBV(A;^n)`$. Assume that there exists $`q>1`$ and $`c0`$ such that

$$_A|u_k|^q𝑑x+^{N1}(S_{u_k})+u_k_{\mathrm{}}c$$

for every $`k`$. Then there exists a subsequence $`(u_{k_h})`$ and a function $`uSBV(A;^n)`$ such that

$`u_{k_h}ustronglyinL^1(A;^n);`$
(2.1) $`u_{k_h}uweaklyinL^1(A;M^{N\times n});`$
$`^{N1}(S_u)\underset{h}{lim\; inf}^{N1}(S_{u_{k_h}}).`$
In the rest of the paper, we will say that $`u_ku`$ in $`SBV(A;^n)`$ if $`u_k`$ and $`u`$ satisfy (2.1). It will also be useful the following fact which can be derived from Ambrosio’s Theorem: if $`u_ku`$ in $`SBV(A;^n)`$ and if $`^{N1}\text{ }\text{ }S_{u_k}\stackrel{}{}\mu `$ weakly-star in the sense of measures, then $`^{N1}\text{ }\text{ }S_u\mu `$ as measures. We will set $`SBV(A):=SBV(A;)`$.

Quasi-static evolution of brittle fracture. Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ be an open bounded subset of $`^N`$ with Lipschitz boundary, and let $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ be a subset of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ open in the relative topology. Let $`g:[0,1]H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ be absolutely continuous; we indicate the gradient of $`g`$ at time $`t`$ by $`g(t)`$, and the time derivative of $`g`$ at time $`t`$ by $`\dot{g}(t)`$. The main result of  is the following theorem.

###### Theorem 2.2.

There exists a crack $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ and a field $`u(t)SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that:

* $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)`$ increases with $`t`$;
*
* $`u(0)`$ minimizes

$$_\mathrm{\Omega }|v|^2𝑑x+^{N1}(S_v\{x_D\mathrm{\Omega }:v(x)g(0)(x)\})$$

among all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ (inequalities on $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ are intended for the traces of $`v`$ and $`g`$);
*
* for $`t>0`$, $`u(t)`$ minimizes

$$_\mathrm{\Omega }|v|^2𝑑x+^{N1}\left(\left[S_v\{x_D\mathrm{\Omega }:v(x)g(t)(x)\}\right]\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\right)$$

among all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$;
*
* $`S_{u(t)}\{x_D\mathrm{\Omega }:u(t)(x)g(t)(x)\}\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)`$, up to a set of $`^{N1}`$-measure $`0`$.

Furthermore, the total energy

$$(t):=_\mathrm{\Omega }|u(t)|^2𝑑x+^{N1}(\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))$$

is absolutely continuous and satisfies

$$(t)=(0)+2_0^t_\mathrm{\Omega }u(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau $$

for every $`t[0,1]`$. Finally, for any countable, dense set $`I[0,1]`$, the crack $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)`$ and the displacement $`u(t)`$ can be chosen so that

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)=\underset{\tau I,\tau t}{}\left(S_{u(\tau )}\{x_D\mathrm{\Omega }:u(\tau )(x)g(\tau )(x)\}\right).$$

The main tool in the proof of Theorem 2.2 is the following result \[10, Theorem 2.1\], which is useful also in our analysis.

###### Theorem 2.3.

Let $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$, with $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ Lipschitz, and let for $`r=1,\mathrm{},i`$ $`(u_n^r)`$ be a sequence in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ such that

* $`S_{u_n^r}\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$;
*
* $`|u_n^r|`$ weakly converges in $`L^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$; and
*
* $`u_n^ru^r`$ strongly in $`L^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$,

where $`u^rBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ with $`^{N1}(S_{u^r})<\mathrm{}`$. Then for every $`\varphi SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ with $`^{N1}(S_\varphi )<\mathrm{}`$ and $`\varphi L^q(\mathrm{\Omega };^N)`$ for some $`q[1,+\mathrm{}[`$, there exists a sequence $`(\varphi _n)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ with $`\varphi _n\varphi `$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ such that

* $`\varphi _n\varphi `$ strongly in $`L^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$;
*
* $`\varphi _n\varphi `$ strongly in $`L^q(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$; and
*
* $`^{N1}\left([S_{\varphi _n}_{r=1}^iS_{u_n^r}][S_\varphi _{r=1}^iS_{u^r}]\right)0`$.

In particular

(2.2)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}^{N1}\left(S_{\varphi _n}\underset{r=1}{\overset{i}{}}S_{u_n^r}\right)^{N1}\left(S_\varphi \underset{r=1}{\overset{i}{}}S_{u^r}\right).$$

Hausdorff metric on compact sets. Let $`A^2`$ be open and bounded, and let $`𝒦(\overline{A})`$ be the set of all compact subsets of $`\overline{A}`$. $`𝒦(\overline{A})`$ can be endowed by the Hausdorff metric $`d_H`$ defined by

$$d_H(K_1,K_2):=\mathrm{max}\{\underset{xK_1}{sup}\mathrm{dist}(x,K_2),\underset{yK_2}{sup}\mathrm{dist}(y,K_1)\},$$

with the conventions $`\mathrm{dist}(x,\mathrm{})=\mathrm{diam}(A)`$ and $`sup\mathrm{}=0`$, so that $`d_H(\mathrm{},K)=0`$ if $`K=\mathrm{}`$ and $`d_H(\mathrm{},K)=\mathrm{diam}(A)`$ if $`K\mathrm{}`$. It turns out that $`𝒦(\overline{A})`$ endowed with the Hausdorff metric is a compact space (see e.g. ).

Triangulations. Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2`$ be a polygonal set and let us fix two positive constants $`0<c_1<c_2`$. By a regular triangulation of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of size $`\epsilon `$ we intend a finite family of (closed) triangles $`T_i`$ such that $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}=_iT_i`$, $`T_iT_j`$ is either empty or equal to a common edge or to a common vertex, and each $`T_i`$ contains a ball of diameter $`c_1\epsilon `$ and is contained in a ball of diameter $`c_2\epsilon `$.

We indicate by $`_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ the family of all regular triangulations of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of size $`\epsilon `$. It turns out that there exist $`0<\vartheta _1<\vartheta _2<\pi `$ such that for all $`T`$ belonging to a triangulation $`𝐓_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$, the inner angles of $`T`$ are between $`\vartheta _1`$ and $`\vartheta _2`$. Moreover, every edge of $`T`$ has length greater than $`c_1\epsilon `$ and lower than $`c_2\epsilon `$.

Let us fix a triangulation $`𝐑_\epsilon _\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for all $`\epsilon >0`$ and let $`a]0,\frac{1}{2}[`$. Let us consider a new triangulation $`𝐓`$ nested in $`𝐑_\epsilon `$ obtained dividing each $`T𝐑_\epsilon `$ into four triangles taking over every edge $`[x,y]`$ of $`T`$ a knot $`z`$ which satisfies

$$z=tx+(1t)y,t[a,1a].$$

We will call these new vertices adaptive, the triangles obtained joining these points adaptive triangles, and their edges adaptive edges (see Fig.1).

We denote by $`𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ the set of all triangulations $`𝐓`$ constructed in this way. Note that for all $`𝐓𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ there exists $`0<c_1^a<c_2^a<+\mathrm{}`$ such that every $`T_i𝐓`$ contains a ball of diameter $`c_1^a\epsilon `$ and is contained in a ball of diameter $`c_2^a\epsilon `$. Then there exist $`0<\vartheta _1^a<\vartheta _2^a<\pi `$ such that for all triangles $`T`$ belonging to a triangulation $`𝐓𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, the inner angles of $`T`$ are between $`\vartheta _1^a`$ and $`\vartheta _2^a`$. Moreover, every edge of $`T`$ has length greater than $`c_1^a\epsilon `$ and lower than $`c_2^a\epsilon `$.

We will often use the following interpolation estimate (see \[7, Theorem 3.1.5\]). If $`uW^{2,2}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ and $`T𝐑_\epsilon `$, let $`u_T`$ denote the affine interpolation of $`u`$ on $`T`$. We have that there exists $`K`$ depending only on $`c_1,c_2`$ such that

(2.3)
$$u_Tu_{W^{1,2}(T)}K\epsilon u_{W^{2,2}(T)}.$$

Estimate (2.3) holds also for $`𝐓𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$: in this case $`K`$ depends on $`a`$.

Some elementary constructions. The following lemmas will be used in Section 4.

###### Lemma 2.4.

Let $`𝐓𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, and let $`l\mathrm{\Omega }`$ be a segment with extremes $`p,q`$ belonging to edges of $`𝐓`$. There exists a polyhedral curve $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ with extremal points $`p`$ and $`q`$ (see Fig.2) such that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is contained in the union of the edges of those $`T𝐓`$ with $`Tl\mathrm{}`$, and such that the following properties hold:

* $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\gamma _p\gamma \gamma _q`$, where $`\gamma `$ is union of edges of $`𝐓`$ and $`\gamma _p`$, $`\gamma _q`$ are segments containing $`p`$ and $`q`$ respectively, and each one is contained in an edge of $`𝐓`$;
*
* there exists a constant $`c`$ independent of $`ϵ`$ (but depending on $`a`$) such that

$$^1(\mathrm{\Gamma })c^1(l).$$

###### Proof.

Let $`\{T_1,\mathrm{}T_k\}`$ be the family of triangles in $`𝐓`$ such that the intersection with $`l`$ is a segment with positive length. For every integer $`1ik`$, let $`l_i:=T_il.`$ If $`l_i`$ is an edge of $`T_i`$, we set $`D_i=T_i`$. Otherwise let $`D_i`$ be a connected component of $`T_il_i`$ such that $`|D_i|\frac{1}{2}|T_i|.`$ We claim that there exists a constant $`c>0`$ independent of $`ϵ`$ such that

(2.4)
$$^1(D_i)c^1(l_i).$$

We have to analyze two possibilities, namely $`D_i`$ is a triangle, or $`D_i`$ is a trapezoid. Suppose that $`D_i`$ is a triangle and that $`m_i`$ is an edge of $`D_i`$. Let $`\alpha `$ be the angle of $`D_i`$ opposite to $`l_i`$. It is easy to prove that $`^1(l_i)^1(m_i)\mathrm{sin}\alpha `$, and so

$$^1(l_i)\frac{1}{3}\mathrm{sin}\alpha ^1(D_i).$$

Since $`\vartheta _1^a\alpha \vartheta _2^a`$, $`\mathrm{sin}\alpha `$ is uniformly bounded from below, and hence inequality (2.4) follows. If $`D_i`$ is a trapezoid, since $`|D_i|\frac{1}{2}|T_i|`$, it follows that $`T_iD_i`$ is a triangle such that its edges different from $`l_i`$ have length greater than $`\frac{1}{2}c_1^a\epsilon `$. Let $`\alpha `$ be the inner angle of $`T_iD_i`$ opposite to $`l_i`$. We have that

$$^1(l_i)\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{sin}\alpha c_1^a\epsilon \frac{1}{2}\mathrm{sin}\alpha \frac{c_1^a}{c_2^a}\frac{1}{4}^1(D_i).$$

Since $`\vartheta _1^a\alpha \vartheta _2^a`$, inequality (2.4) follows.

By (2.4), we deduce that

$$^1\left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}D_i\right)c^1(l);$$

moreover, since $`_{i=1}^kD_i`$ is arcwise connected and contains $`p,q`$, we conclude that there exists a curve $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{i=1}^kD_i`$ which satisfies the thesis. ∎

###### Lemma 2.5.

There exists a constant $`c>0`$ such that for every segment $`l\mathrm{\Omega }`$ there exists $`\epsilon _0`$ with the following property: for every $`\epsilon \epsilon _0`$, setting $`(l):=\{T𝐑_\epsilon :Tl\mathrm{}\}`$, we have

$$^1((l))c^1(l).$$

###### Proof.

Let $`𝒩_\epsilon (l):=\{x\mathrm{\Omega }:\mathrm{dist}(x,l)c_2\epsilon \}`$. We have that $`|𝒩_\epsilon (l)|=^1(l)c_2\epsilon +\pi c_2^2\epsilon ^2`$, and hence there exists a positive constant $`\epsilon _0`$ such that, for every $`\epsilon \epsilon _0`$, we have that

$$|𝒩_\epsilon (l)|2^1(l)c_2\epsilon .$$

We have that $`(l)𝒩_\epsilon (l),`$ and

$$\mathrm{}(l)\frac{4}{c_1^2\pi ^2}\frac{|𝒩_\epsilon (l)|}{\epsilon ^2},$$

where $`\mathrm{}(l)`$ denotes the number of triangles of $`(l)`$. Then, we have

$$^1((l))3c_2\epsilon \mathrm{}(l)3c_2\epsilon \frac{4}{c_1^2\pi ^2}\frac{|𝒩_\epsilon (l)|}{\epsilon ^2}3c_2^2\frac{4}{c_1^2\pi ^2}2^1(l),$$

and so the proof is concluded. ∎

A density result. Let $`A^2`$ be open. We say that $`KA`$ is polygonal (with respect to $`A`$), if it is the intersection of $`A`$ with the union of a finite number of closed segments. The following density result is proved in .

###### Theorem 2.6.

Assume that $`A`$ is locally Lipschitz, and let $`uSBV(A)`$ such that $`uL^2(A)`$, $`uL^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$, and $`^1(S_u)<+\mathrm{}`$. For every $`\epsilon >0`$, there exists a function $`vSBV(A)`$ such that

* $`S_v`$ is essentially closed, i.e., $`^1(\overline{S_v}S_v)=0`$;
*
* $`\overline{S_v}`$ is a polyhedral set;
*
* $`vW^{k,\mathrm{}}(A\overline{S_v})`$ for every $`k`$;
*
* $`vu_{L^2(A)}<\epsilon `$;
*
* $`vu_{L^2(A;^2)}<\epsilon `$;
*
* $`|^1(S_v)^1(S_u)|<\epsilon `$.

Let $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ be a relatively open subset of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ composed of edges lying in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Let us consider $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ polygonal open bounded subset of $`^2`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_D=_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ up to a finite number of vertices. We set $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}:=\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_D_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$. In Section 4, we will use the following result.

###### Proposition 2.7.

Given $`uSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ with $`u=0`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ and $`^{N1}(S_u)<+\mathrm{}`$, there exists $`u_hSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ such that

* $`u_h=0`$ in $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$;
*
* $`S_{u_h}`$ is polyhedral, $`\overline{S_{u_h}}\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`u_hW^{k,\mathrm{}}(\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{S_{u_h}})`$ for all $`k`$;
*
* $`u_hu`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ and $`u_hu`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^2)`$;
*
* for all $`A`$ open subset of $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ with $`^1(AS_u)=0`$, we have

$$\underset{h}{lim}^1(AS_{u_h})=^1(AS_u).$$

###### Proof.

Using a partition of unity, we may prove the result in the case $`\mathrm{\Omega }:=]1,1[\times ]0,1[`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}:=]1,1[\times ]1,1[`$, and $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }:=]1,1[\times \{0\}`$. We set $`w_h(x,y):=u(x,yh)`$, and let $`\phi _h`$ be a cut off function with $`\phi _h=1`$ on $`]1,1[\times ]1,\frac{h}{3}[`$, $`\phi _h=0`$ on $`]1,1[\times ]\frac{h}{2},1[`$, and $`\phi _h_{\mathrm{}}\frac{7}{h}`$. Let us set $`v_h:=(1\phi _h)w_h`$. We have that $`v_h=0`$ in $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$; moreover we have

$$v_h=(1\phi _h)w_h\phi _hw_h.$$

Since $`\phi _hw_h0`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^2)`$, we have $`v_hu`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^N)`$. Finally, for all $`A`$ open subset of $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ with $`^1(AS_u)=0`$, we have

$$\underset{h}{lim}^1(AS_{v_h})=^1(AS_u).$$

In order to conclude the proof, let us apply Theorem 2.6 obtaining $`\stackrel{~}{v}_h`$ with polyhedral jumps in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ such that $`\stackrel{~}{v}_hW^{k,\mathrm{}}(\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{S_{\stackrel{~}{v}_h}})`$, $`w_h\stackrel{~}{v}_h_{L^2(\mathrm{\Omega })}+w_h\stackrel{~}{v}_h_{L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)}h^2`$ and $`|^{N1}(S_{w_h})^{N1}(S_{\stackrel{~}{v}_h})|h`$. If we set $`u_h:=\phi _hg+(1\phi _h)\stackrel{~}{v}_h`$, we obtain the thesis. ∎

## 3. The discontinuous finite element approximation

In this section we construct a discrete approximation of quasi-static evolution of brittle fractures in linearly elastic bodies: the discretization is done both in space and time.

From now on we suppose that $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is a polygonal open bounded subset of $`^2`$, and that $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is open in the relative topology. For all $`\epsilon >0`$, we fix a triangulation $`𝐑_\epsilon _\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$, and suppose that $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is composed of edges of $`𝐑_\epsilon `$ for all $`\epsilon `$; we indicate the family of these edges by $`𝐒_\epsilon `$.

We consider the following discontinuous finite element space. We indicate by $`𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ the set of all $`u`$ such that there exists a triangulation $`𝐓(u)𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ nested in $`𝐑_\epsilon `$ with $`u`$ affine on every $`T𝐓(u)`$. For every $`u𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, we write $`u`$ for the $`L^2`$-norm of $`u`$ and we indicate by $`S_u`$ the family of edges of $`𝐓(u)`$ inside $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ across which $`u`$ is discontinuous. Notice that $`uSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ and that the notation is consistent with the usual one employed in the theory of functions with bounded variation. Let us also denote by $`𝒜_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ the set of affine functions in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ with respect to the triangulation $`𝐑_\epsilon `$. Finally, given any $`g𝒜_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$, for all $`u𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ we set

(3.1)
$$S_D^g(u):=\{\zeta 𝐒_\epsilon :ug\text{ on }\zeta \},$$

that is $`S_D^g(u)`$ denotes the edges at which the boundary condition is not satisfied. Moreover we set

(3.2)
$$S^g(u):=S_uS_D^g(u)$$

Let now consider $`gW^{1,1}([0,1];H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }))`$ with $`g(t)𝒜_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$. Let $`\delta >0`$ and let $`N_\delta `$ be the largest integer such that $`\delta (N_\delta 1)<1`$; for $`0iN_\delta 1`$ we set $`t_i^\delta :=i\delta `$, $`t_{N_\delta }^\delta :=1`$ and $`g_i^\delta :=g(t_i^\delta )`$. The following proposition holds.

###### Proposition 3.1.

Let $`\epsilon >0`$, $`a]0,\frac{1}{2}]`$ and $`\delta >0`$ be fixed. Then for all $`i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta `$ there exists $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that, setting

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}:=\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S^{g_r^\delta }(u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,r}),$$

the following hold:

*
* $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}_{\mathrm{}}g_i^\delta _{\mathrm{}}`$;
*
* for all $`v𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ we have

(3.3)
$$u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,0}^2+^1\left(S^{g_0^\delta }(u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,0})\right)v^2+^1\left(S^{g_0^\delta }(v)\right),$$

and

(3.4)
$$u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}^2v^2+^1\left(S^{g_i^\delta }(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}\right).$$

###### Proof.

The proof is carried out through a variational argument. Let $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,0}`$ be a minimum of the following problem

(3.5)
$$\mathrm{min}\left\{u^2+^1(S^{g_0^\delta }(u))\right\}.$$

We set $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,0}:=S^{g_0^\delta }(u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,0})`$. Recursively, supposing to have constructed $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}`$, let $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}`$ be a minimum for

(3.6)
$$\mathrm{min}\left\{u^2+^1\left(S^{g_i^\delta }(u)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}\right)\right\}.$$

We set $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}:=S^{g_i^\delta }(u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i})\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}`$. We claim that problems (3.5) and (3.6) admit a solution $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}`$ such that $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}_{\mathrm{}}g_i^\delta _{\mathrm{}}`$ for all $`i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta `$. We prove the claim for problem (3.6), the other case being similar. Let $`(u_n)`$ be a minimizing sequence for problem (3.6): since $`g_i^\delta `$ is an admissible test function, we deduce that for $`n`$ large

$$u_n^2+^1\left(S^{g_i^\delta }(u_n)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}\right)g_i^\delta ^2.$$

Moreover, we may modify $`u_n`$ in the following way. If $`\pi `$ denotes the projection in $``$ over the interval $`I:=[g_i^\delta _{\mathrm{}},g_i^\delta _{\mathrm{}}]`$, let $`\stackrel{~}{u}_n𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ be defined on each $`T𝐓(u_n)`$ as the affine interpolation of the values $`(\pi (u_n(x_1)),\pi (u_n(x_2)),\pi (u_n(x_3))`$, where $`x_1,x_2`$ and $`x_3`$ are the vertices of $`T`$. Note that by construction we have for all $`n`$

$$\stackrel{~}{u}_n_{\mathrm{}}g_i^\delta _{\mathrm{}},\stackrel{~}{u}_nu_n,S^{g_i^\delta }(\stackrel{~}{u}_n)S^{g_i^\delta }(u_n),$$

so that $`(\stackrel{~}{u}_n)`$ is a minimizing sequence for problem (3.6). We conclude that it is not restrictive to assume $`u_n_{\mathrm{}}g_i^\delta _{\mathrm{}}`$.

Since $`𝐓(u_n)𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, we have that the number of elements of $`𝐓(u_n)`$ is uniformly bounded. Up to a subsequence, we may suppose that there exists an integer $`k`$ such that $`𝐓(u_n)`$ has exactly $`k`$ elements $`T_n^1,\mathrm{},T_n^k`$. Using a diagonal argument we may suppose that, up to a further subsequence, there exists $`𝐓=\{T^1,\mathrm{},T^k\}𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that $`T_n^iT^i`$ in the Hausdorff metric for all $`i=1,\mathrm{},k`$. Let us consider $`T^i𝐓`$, and let $`\stackrel{~}{T}^i`$ be contained in the interior of $`T^i`$. For $`n`$ large enough, $`\stackrel{~}{T}^i`$ is contained in the interior of $`T_n^i`$ and $`(u_n)_{|\stackrel{~}{T}^i}`$ is affine with $`_{\stackrel{~}{T}^i}|u_n|^2𝑑xC`$ with $`C`$ independent of $`n`$. We deduce that there exists a function $`u^i`$ affine on $`\stackrel{~}{T}^i`$ such that up to a subsequence $`u_nu`$ uniformly on $`\stackrel{~}{T}^i`$. Since $`\stackrel{~}{T}^i`$ is arbitrary, it turns out that $`u^i`$ is actually defined on $`T^i`$ and

$$_{T^i}|u^i|^2𝑑x\underset{n}{lim\; inf}_{T_n^i}|u_n|^2𝑑x.$$

Let $`u𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that $`u=u^i`$ on $`T^i`$ for every $`i=1,\mathrm{},k`$: we have

$$u^2\underset{n}{lim\; inf}u_n^2.$$

On the other hand, it is easy to see that $`S^{g_i^\delta }(u)`$ is contained in the Hausdorff limit of $`S^{g_i^\delta }(u_n)`$, and that

$$^1\left(S^{g_i^\delta }(u)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}\right)\underset{n}{lim\; inf}^1\left(S^{g_i^\delta }(u_n)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}\right).$$

We conclude that $`u`$ is a minimum point for the problem (3.6) with $`u_{\mathrm{}}g_i^\delta _{\mathrm{}}`$. We have that point $`(a)`$ is proved.

Concerning point $`(b)`$, by construction we get (3.3); for $`i1`$ we have

$$u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}^2+^1\left(S^{g_i^\delta }(u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i})\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}\right)v^2+^1\left(S^{g_i^\delta }(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}\right)$$

for all $`v𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, so that

$$u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}^2v^2+^1\left(S^{g_i^\delta }(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}\right),$$

and this proves point $`(b)`$. ∎

###### Remark 3.2.

For technical reasons due to the asymptotic analysis of the discrete evolution $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}`$ when $`\delta 0`$, $`\epsilon 0`$ and $`a0`$, we define $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}`$ from $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}`$ through problem (3.6) without requiring that the adaptive vertices determining $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i1}`$ remain fixed. We just penalize their possible changes if they are used to create new fracture: in fact in this case, the surface energy increases at each change of a quantity at least of order $`a\epsilon `$. As a consequence, during the step by step minimization, it could happen that some triangles $`T𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ contain the fracture $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}`$ in their interior. This is in contrast with the interpretation of the triangles as elementary blocks for the elasticity problem, but being this situation penalized in the minimization process, we expect that it occurs rarely.

The following estimate is essential for the study of asymptotic behavior of the discrete evolution.

###### Proposition 3.3.

If $`(u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i},\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i})`$ for $`i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta `$ satisfies condition $`(b)`$ of Proposition 3.1, setting $`_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}:=u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}^2+^1\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}\right)`$, we have for $`0jiN_\delta `$

(3.7)
$$_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}+2\underset{r=j}{\overset{i1}{}}_{t_r^\delta }^{t_{r+1}^\delta }_\mathrm{\Omega }u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,r}\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau +o^\delta ,$$

where

(3.8)
$$o^\delta :=\left[\underset{r=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta 1}{\mathrm{max}}_{t_r^\delta }^{t_{r+1}^\delta }\dot{g}(\tau )_{H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })}𝑑\tau \right]_0^1\dot{g}(\tau )_{H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })}𝑑\tau .$$

###### Proof.

For all $`0jN_\delta 1`$, by construction of $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j+1}`$ we have that

$$\begin{array}{c}u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j+1}^2+^1\left(S^{g_{j+1}^\delta }(u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j+1})\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}\right)u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}+(g_{j+1}^\delta g_j^\delta )^2=\hfill \\ \hfill =u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}^2+2_\mathrm{\Omega }u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}(g_{j+1}^\delta g_j^\delta )dx+(g_{j+1}^\delta g_j^\delta )^2.\end{array}$$

Notice that

$$(g_{j+1}^\delta g_j^\delta )=_{t_j^\delta }^{t_{j+1}^\delta }\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑\tau ,$$

so that

(3.9)
$$\begin{array}{c}u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j+1}^2+^1\left(S^{g_{j+1}^\delta }(u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j+1})\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}\right)\hfill \\ \hfill u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}^2+2_{t_j^\delta }^{t_{j+1}^\delta }_\mathrm{\Omega }u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau +e(\delta )_{t_j^\delta }^{t_{j+1}^\delta }\dot{g}(\tau )_{H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })}𝑑\tau ,\end{array}$$

where

$$e(\delta ):=\underset{r=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta 1}{\mathrm{max}}_{t_r^\delta }^{t_{r+1}^\delta }\dot{g}(\tau )_{H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })}𝑑\tau .$$

From (3.9), we obtain that for all $`0jiN_\delta `$

$$\begin{array}{c}u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}^2+^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i})u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j}^2+^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,j})+\hfill \\ \hfill +2\underset{r=j}{\overset{i1}{}}_{t_r^\delta }^{t_{r+1}^\delta }_\mathrm{\Omega }u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,r}\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau +e(\delta )_{t_j^\delta }^{t_i^\delta }\dot{g}(\tau )_{H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })}𝑑\tau ,\end{array}$$

and so the proof of point $`(c)`$ is complete choosing

$$o^\delta :=e(\delta )_0^1\dot{g}(\tau )_{H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })}𝑑\tau .$$

## 4. The convergence result

This section is devoted to the proof of Theorem 1.1. As in Section 3, let $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ be a polygonal open bounded subset of $`^2`$, and let $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }`$ be open in the relative topology. For all $`\epsilon >0`$, let $`𝐑_\epsilon _\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ be a regular triangulation of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ such that $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is composed of edges of $`𝐑_\epsilon `$. As in the previous section, let $`𝒜_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ be the family of continuous piecewise affine functions with respect to $`𝐑_\epsilon `$, and let $`𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ be the family of functions which are affine on the triangles of some triangulation $`𝐓𝒯_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ nested in $`𝐑_\epsilon `$ and can jump across the edges of $`𝐓`$.

In the following, it will be useful to treat points at which the boundary condition is violated (see (3.1)) as internal jumps. Thus we consider $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ polygonal open bounded subset of $`^2`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_D=_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ up to a finite number of points; we set $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}:=\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_D_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Given $`u𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ and $`g𝒜_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$, we may extend $`g`$ to a function of $`H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ and $`u`$ to a function $`\stackrel{~}{u}SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ setting $`\stackrel{~}{u}=g`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$. In this way, recalling (3.2), we have

$$S^g(u)=S_{\stackrel{~}{u}},$$

so that the violation of the boundary condition of $`u`$ can be read in the set of jumps of $`\stackrel{~}{u}`$. Analogously, given $`uSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ and $`gH^1(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, we set

(4.1)
$$S^g(u):=S_u\{x_D\mathrm{\Omega }:\gamma (u)(x)\gamma (g)(x)\}$$

where $`\gamma `$ denotes the trace operator on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. We may assume $`gH^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ using an extension operator. We can then consider $`\stackrel{~}{u}SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ such that $`\stackrel{~}{u}=u`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{u}=g`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$. In this way we have

$$S^g(u)=S_{\stackrel{~}{u}}\text{ up to a set of }^1\text{-measure }0.$$

Let us consider $`gW^{1,1}([0,1],H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }))`$ such that $`g(t)_{\mathrm{}}C`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$ and let $`g_\epsilon W^{1,1}([0,1],H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }))`$ be such that $`g_\epsilon (t)𝒜_\epsilon (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$,

(4.2)
$$g_\epsilon (t)_{\mathrm{}}C$$

for all $`t[0,1]`$, and for $`\epsilon 0`$

(4.3)
$$g_\epsilon g\text{ strongly in }W^{1,1}([0,1],H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })).$$

We indicate by $`\{u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i},i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta \}`$ the discrete evolution relative to the boundary data $`g_\epsilon `$ given by Proposition 3.1, and we denote by $`_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}`$ its total energy as in Proposition 3.3.

We assume that $`g()`$ and $`g_\epsilon ()`$ are defined in $`H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ (we still denote these extensions by $`g()`$ and $`g_h()`$), in such a way that (4.2) and (4.3) hold in $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$. Let us moreover set $`g_\epsilon ^\delta (t):=g_\epsilon (t_i^\delta )`$ for all $`t_i^\delta t<t_{i+1}^\delta `$ with $`i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta 1`$ and $`g_\epsilon ^\delta (1):=g_\epsilon (1)`$.

Let us make the following piecewise constant interpolation in time:

$$u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t):=u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,i}\text{ for }t_i^\delta t<t_{i+1}^\delta i=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta 1,$$

and $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (1):=u_{\epsilon ,a}^{\delta ,N_\delta }`$. For all $`t[0,1]`$ we define the discrete fracture at time $`t`$ as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t):=\underset{st}{}S^{g_\epsilon ^\delta (s)}(u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (s)),$$

and the discrete total energy at time $`t`$ as

$$_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t):=u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)^2+^1\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)\right).$$

We have for all $`t[0,1]`$

(4.4)
$$u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)_{\mathrm{}}g_\epsilon ^\delta (t)_{\mathrm{}}.$$

Moreover for all $`v𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ we have

(4.5)
$$u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (0)^2+^1\left(S^{g_\epsilon ^\delta (0)}(u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (0))\right)v^2+^1\left(S^{g_\epsilon ^\delta (0)}(v)\right),$$

and for all $`t]0,1]`$ and for all $`v𝒜_{\epsilon ,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$

(4.6)
$$u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)^2v^2+^1\left(S^{g_\epsilon ^\delta (t)}(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)\right).$$

Finally for all $`0st1`$ we have

(4.7)
$$_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (s)+2_{s_i^\delta }^{t_i^\delta }_\mathrm{\Omega }u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (\tau )\dot{g}_\epsilon (\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau +o_\epsilon ^\delta ,$$

where $`t_i^\delta t<t_{i+1}^\delta `$, $`s_i^\delta s<s_{i+1}^\delta `$ and

(4.8)
$$o_\epsilon ^\delta :=\left[\underset{r=0,\mathrm{},N_\delta 1}{\mathrm{max}}_{t_r^\delta }^{t_{r+1}^\delta }\dot{g}_\epsilon (\tau )_{H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })}𝑑\tau \right]_0^1\dot{g}_\epsilon (\tau )_{H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })}.$$

For $`s=0`$ we obtain the following estimate from above for the discrete total energy

(4.9)
$$_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (0)+2_0^{t_i^\delta }_\mathrm{\Omega }u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (\tau )\dot{g}_\epsilon (\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau +o_\epsilon ^\delta ,$$

where $`t_i^\delta t<t_{i+1}^\delta `$.

We study the behavior of the evolution $`\{tu_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t),t[0,1]\}`$ varying the parameters in the following way. We let firstly $`\epsilon 0`$ and $`\delta 0`$ obtaining an evolution $`\{tu_a(t),t[0,1]\}`$ relative to the boundary data $`g`$ with the minimality property (4.17); then we let $`a0`$ obtaining a quasi-static evolution of brittle fractures $`\{tu(t),t[0,1]\}`$ relative to the boundary data $`g`$. Finally, by a diagonal argument we deal with $`(\delta ,\epsilon ,a)`$ at the same time.

In order to develop this program, we need some compactness, and so we derive a bound for the total energy $`_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta `$. By (3.4), we have that for all $`t[0,1]`$

$$u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)g_\epsilon ^\delta (t)\stackrel{~}{C}$$

with $`\stackrel{~}{C}`$ independent of $`\delta `$, $`\epsilon `$ and $`t`$. We deduce for all $`t[0,1]`$

$$_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (0)+2\stackrel{~}{C}^2+o_\epsilon ^\delta $$

Notice that $`_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (0)`$ is uniformly bounded as $`\delta ,\epsilon `$ vary. Moreover, by (4.4) and since $`g_\epsilon (t)_{\mathrm{}}C`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$, we have that $`u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)`$ is uniformly bounded in $`L^{\mathrm{}}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ independently of $`\delta ,\epsilon `$ and $`a`$. Taking into account (4.3), we conclude that there exists $`C^{}`$ independent of $`\delta ,\epsilon ,a`$ such that for all $`t[0,1]`$

(4.10)
$$_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)+u_{\epsilon ,a}^\delta (t)_{\mathrm{}}C^{}.$$

Formula (4.10) gives the desired compactness in order to perform the asymptotic analysis of the discrete evolution.

Let now consider $`\delta _n0`$ and $`\epsilon _n0`$: by (4.3) we have

(4.11)
$$o_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}0,$$

where $`o_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}`$ is defined in (4.8). By Helly’s theorem on monotone functions, we may suppose that there exists an increasing function $`\lambda _a`$ such that (up to a subsequence) for all $`t[0,1]`$

(4.12)
$$\lambda _{n,a}(t):=^1\left(\underset{st}{}S^{g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(s)}(u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(s))\right)\lambda _a(t).$$

Let us fix $`D[0,1]`$ countable and dense with $`0D`$.

###### Lemma 4.1.

For all $`tD`$ there exists $`u_a(t)SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that up to a subsequence independent of $`t`$

$$u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u_a(t)\text{ in }SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }).$$

Moreover for all $`tD`$ we have

(4.13)
$$u_a(t)^2+^1\left(S^{g(t)}(u_a(t))\right)+u_a(t)_{\mathrm{}}C^{}.$$

###### Proof.

Let us consider $`tD`$. By (4.10), we can apply Ambrosio’s Compactness Theorem 2.1 obtaining $`uSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that, up to a subsequence, $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$. Let us set $`u_a(t):=u`$. Using a diagonal argument, we deduce that there exists a subsequence of $`(\delta _n,\epsilon _n)`$ (which we still denote by $`(\delta _n,\epsilon _n)`$) such that $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u_a(t)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for all $`tD`$. In order to obtain inequality (4.13), we extend $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)`$ and $`u_a(t)`$ to $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ setting $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t):=g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t)`$ and $`u_a(t):=g(t)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$; since $`g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t)g(t)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ strongly in $`H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }_D)`$, we have that $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u_a(t)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$, so that we can apply Ambrosio’s Theorem, and derive (4.13) from (4.10). ∎

The following result is essential for the sequel: its proof is postponed to Section 5.

###### Proposition 4.2.

Let $`tD`$. For all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ we have

(4.14)
$$u_a(t)^2v^2+\mu (a)^1(S^{g(t)}(v)\underset{st,sD}{}S^{g(s)}(u_a(s))),$$

where $`\mu :]0,\frac{1}{2}[]0,+\mathrm{}[`$ is such that $`lim_{a0}\mu (a)=1`$. Moreover, $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u_a(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$.

We now extend the evolution $`\{tu_a(t):tD\}`$ to the entire interval $`[0,1]`$. Let us set for all $`t[0,1]`$

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t):=\underset{st,sD}{}S^{g(s)}(u_a(s)).$$

###### Lemma 4.3.

For every $`t[0,1]`$ there exists $`u_a(t)SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that the following hold:

* for all $`t[0,1]`$

(4.15)
$$S^{g(t)}(u_a(t))\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)\text{ up to a set of }^1\text{-measure }0,$$

and

(4.16)
$$u_a(t)^2+^1\left(S^{g(t)}(u_a(t))\right)+u_a(t)_{\mathrm{}}C^{};$$
*
* for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$

(4.17)
$$u_a(t)^2v^2+\mu (a)^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)\right);$$
*
* $`u_a`$ is left continuous in $`[0,1]D`$ with respect to the strong topology of $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$;
*
* for all $`t[0,1]𝒩_a`$ we have that

$$u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u_a(t)\text{ strongly in }L^2(\mathrm{\Omega },^2),$$

where $`𝒩_a`$ is the set of discontinuities of the function $`\lambda _a`$ defined in (4.12).

###### Proof.

Let $`t[0,1]D`$ and let $`t_nD`$ with $`t_nt`$. By (4.13), we can apply Ambrosio’s Theorem to the sequence $`(u_a(t_n))`$ obtaining $`uSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that, up to a subsequence, $`u_a(t_n)u`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$. Let us set $`u_a(t):=u`$. Let us extend $`u_a(t_n)`$ and $`u_a(t)`$ to $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ setting $`u_a(t_n):=g(t_n)`$ and $`u_a(t):=g(t)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$: we have $`u_a(t_n)u_a(t)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$. Since $`^1\text{ }\text{ }S_{u_a(t_n)}^1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)`$ for all $`n`$, as a consequence of Ambrosio’s Theorem, we deduce that $`^1\text{ }\text{ }S_{u_a(t)}^1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)`$. This means $`^1\text{ }\text{ }S^{g(t)}(u_a(t))^1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)`$, so that (4.15) holds. Moreover, for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, by (4.14) we may write

(4.18)
$$\begin{array}{c}u_a(t_n)^2vg(t)+g(t_n)^2+\mu (a)^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t_n)\right)\hfill \\ \hfill vg(t)+g(t_n)^2+\mu (a)^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)\right)+\mu (a)^1\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t_n)\right),\end{array}$$

so that, since by definition of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)`$ we have $`^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t_n))0`$, we obtain that (4.17) holds; choosing $`v=u_a(t)`$ and taking the limsup in (4.18), we obtain that

$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}u_a(t_n)^2u_a(t)^2,$$

and so the convergence $`u_a(t_n)u_a(t)`$ is strong in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega },^2)`$. Notice that $`u_a(t)`$ is uniquely determined by (4.15) and (4.17) since the gradient of the solutions of the minimum problem

$$\mathrm{min}\left\{u^2:S^{g(t)}(u)\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)\text{ up to a set of }^1\text{-measure }0\right\}$$

is unique by the strict convexity of the functional: we conclude that $`u_a(t)`$ is well defined. The same arguments prove that $`u_a`$ is left continuous at all $`t[0,1]D`$. Finally (4.16) is a direct consequence of (4.13) and of Ambrosio’s Theorem, and so points $`(a)`$, $`(b)`$, $`(c)`$ are proved.

Let us come to point $`(d)`$. Let us consider $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)`$ with $`t𝒩_a`$; we may suppose that $`tD`$, since otherwise the result has already been established. By Proposition 4.2 with $`D^{}:=D\{t\}`$ in place of $`D`$, we have that, up to a subsequence, $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that

$$u^2v^2+\mu (a)^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)(\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)S^{g(t)}(u))\right)$$

for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ and $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$. Let $`s<t`$ with $`sD`$; by the minimality of $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(s)`$ and by (4.10) we have

$$\begin{array}{c}u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(s)^2u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t)+g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(s)^2+\lambda _{n,a}(t)\lambda _{n,a}(s)\hfill \\ \hfill u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)^2+2\sqrt{C^{}}g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t)g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(s)+\\ \hfill +g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t)g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(s)^2+\lambda _{n,a}(t)\lambda _{n,a}(s).\end{array}$$

Passing to the limit for $`n+\mathrm{}`$, recalling that $`g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(\tau )g(\tau )`$ strongly in $`H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for all $`\tau [0,1]`$, we deduce

$$\begin{array}{c}u_a(s)^2u^2+2\sqrt{C^{}}g(t)g(s)+g(t)g(s)^2+\lambda _a(t)\lambda _a(s),\hfill \end{array}$$

so that, since $`t`$ is a point of continuity for $`\lambda _a`$, $`u_a`$ is left continuous at $`t`$, and $`g`$ is absolutely continuous, we get for $`st`$

$$u_a(t)^2u^2.$$

We conclude that $`u_a(t)`$ is a solution of

$$\mathrm{min}\{v^2:S^{g(t)}(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }_a(t)S^{g(t)}(u)\text{ up to a set of }^1\text{-measure }0\},$$

so that $`u=u_a(t)`$ by uniqueness of the gradient of the solution. We deduce that $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u_a(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$, and so the proof is complete. ∎

We can now let $`a0`$.

###### Lemma 4.4.

There exists $`a_n0`$ such that, for all $`tD`$, $`u_{a_n}(t)u(t)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for some $`u(t)SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ we have

(4.19)
$$u(t)^2v^2+^1(S^{g(t)}(v)\underset{st,sD}{}S^{g(s)}(u(s))).$$

Moreover, $`u_{a_n}(t)u(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$ and

(4.20)
$$u(t)^2+^1(S^{g(t)}(u(t)))+u(t)_{\mathrm{}}C^{}.$$

###### Proof.

By (4.16), applying Ambrosio’s Theorem to the extensions of $`u_a(t)`$ to $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ by setting $`u_a(t):=g(t)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$, and using a diagonal argument, we find a sequence $`a_n0`$ such that, for all $`tD`$, $`u_{a_n}(t)u(t)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for some $`u(t)SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that (4.20) holds.

We now prove that $`u(t)`$ satisfies property (4.19). Let $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$. Let us fix $`t_1t_2\mathrm{}t_k=t`$ with $`t_iD`$. We extend $`v`$ and $`u_{a_n}(t_i)`$ to $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ setting $`v:=g(t)`$ and $`u_{a_n}(t_i):=g(t_i)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ respectively. Since $`u_{a_n}(t_i)u(t_i)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ for all $`i=1,\mathrm{},k`$, by Theorem 2.3 there exists $`v_nSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ with $`v_n=g(t)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ such that $`v_nv`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^2)`$ and

(4.21)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}^1\left(S_{v_n}\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}S_{u_{a_n}(t_i)}\right)^1\left(S_v\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}S_{u(t_i)}\right).$$

By (4.14) we obtain

(4.22)
$$u_{a_n}(t)^2v_n^2+\mu (a_n)^1\left(S_{v_n}\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}S_{u_{a_n}(t_i)}\right),$$

so that passing to the limit for $`n+\mathrm{}`$ and recalling that $`\mu (a)1`$ as $`a0`$, we obtain

$$u(t)^2v^2+^1\left(S_v\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}S_{u(t_i)}\right).$$

Thus we get

$$u(t)^2v^2+^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}S^{g(t_i)}(u(t_i))\right).$$

Since $`t_1,\mathrm{},t_k`$ are arbitrary, we obtain (4.19). Choosing $`v=u(t)`$, taking the limsup in (4.22) and using (4.21), we obtain $`u_{a_n}(t)u(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$. ∎

In order to deal with $`\delta ,\epsilon `$ and $`a`$ at the same time, we need the following lemma.

###### Lemma 4.5.

Let $`\{u(t):tD\}`$ be as in Lemma 4.4. There exist $`\delta _n0`$, $`\epsilon _n0`$, and $`a_n0`$ such for all $`tD`$ we have

$$u_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}(t)u(t)\text{ in }SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })\text{ }.$$

Moreover, for all $`n`$ there exists $`_n[0,1]`$ with $`|_n|<2^n`$ such that for all $`t[0,1]_n`$

(4.23)
$$u_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}(t)u_{a_n}(t)\frac{1}{n}.$$

Finally, we have that for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$

(4.24)
$$u(0)^2+^1\left(S^{g(0)}(u(0))\right)v^2+^1\left(S^{g(0)}(v)\right)$$

and

(4.25)
$$_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}(0)u(0)^2+^1\left(S^{g(0)}(u(0))\right).$$

###### Proof.

Let $`(a_n)`$ be the sequence determined by Lemma 4.4. By Lemma 4.1, for all $`n`$ there exists $`(\delta _m^n,\epsilon _m^n)`$ such that for all $`tD`$ and $`m+\mathrm{}`$ we have

$$u_{\epsilon _m^n,a_n}^{\delta _m^n}(t)u_{a_n}(t)\text{ in }SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }),$$

and

$$u_{\epsilon _m^n,a_n}^{\delta _m^n}(t)u_{a_n}(t)\text{ strongly in }L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2).$$

Moreover by Lemma 4.3 we have that $`u_{\epsilon _m^n,a_n}^{\delta _m^n}u_{a_n}`$ quasi-uniformly on $`[0,1]`$ as $`m+\mathrm{}`$. Let $`_n[0,1]`$ with $`|_n|<2^n`$ such that $`u_{\epsilon _m^n,a_n}^{\delta _m^n}u_{a_n}`$ uniformly on $`[0,1]_n`$ as $`m+\mathrm{}`$. We now perform the following diagonal argument. Let $`D=\{t_n,n1\}`$. Choose $`m_1`$ such that

$$u_{\epsilon _{m_1}^1,a_1}^{\delta _{m_1}^1}(t_1)u_{a_1}(t_1)+u_{\epsilon _{m_1}^1,a_1}^{\delta _{m_1}^1}(t_1)u_{a_1}(t_1)1,$$

and

$$u_{\epsilon _{m_1}^1,a_1}^{\delta _{m_1}^1}(t)u_{a_1}(t)1\text{ for all }t[0,1]_1\text{ }.$$

Let $`m_n`$ be such that

$$u_{\epsilon _{m_n}^n,a_n}^{\delta _{m_n}^n}(t_j)u_{a_n}(t_j)+u_{\epsilon _{m_n}^n,a_n}^{\delta _{m_n}^n}(t_j)u_{a_n}(t_j)\frac{1}{n}\text{ for all }j=1,\mathrm{},n$$

and

$$u_{\epsilon _{m_n}^n,a_n}^{\delta _{m_n}^n}(t)u_{a_n}(t)\frac{1}{n}\text{ for all }t[0,1]_n\text{ }.$$

We may suppose that $`\delta _{m_n}^n0`$, $`\epsilon _{m_n}^n0`$. Then $`(\delta _{m_n}^n,\epsilon _{m_n}^n,a_n)`$ is the sequence which satisfies the thesis. In fact by construction and taking into account (4.10), for all $`tD`$ we have $`u_{\epsilon _{m_n}^n,a_n}^{\delta _{m_n}^n}(t)u(t)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$; moreover the set $`_n`$ satisfies (4.23). Notice that $`u_{\epsilon _{m_n}^n,a_{m_n}^n}^{\delta _{m_n}^n}(0)`$ satisfies (4.5) and so (4.24) and (4.25) follow by the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-convergence result of . ∎

Let $`(\delta _n,\epsilon _n,a_n)`$ be the sequence determined by Lemma 4.5. For all $`t[0,1]`$ let us set

$$\lambda _n(t):=^1\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}(t)\right).$$

By Helly’s theorem, we may suppose that there exist two increasing functions $`\lambda `$ and $`\eta `$ such that up to a subsequence

$$\lambda _n\lambda \text{ pointwise in }[0,1],$$

and

(4.26)
$$\lambda _{a_n}\eta \text{ pointwise in }[0,1],$$

where $`\lambda _{a_n}`$ is defined as in (4.12). We now extend the evolution $`\{tu(t):tD\}`$ to the entire interval $`[0,1]`$. Let us set for all $`t[0,1]`$

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(t):=\underset{st,sD}{}S^{g(s)}(u(s)),$$

and let $`𝒩`$ be the set of discontinuities of $`^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$. Notice that for all $`t[0,1]`$

(4.27)
$$^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))\lambda (t).$$

In fact if $`tD`$, let $`t_1t_2\mathrm{}t_k=t`$ with $`t_iD`$, consider $`w_nSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^k)`$ defined as

$$w_n(x):=(u_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}(t_1)(x),\mathrm{},u_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}(t_k)(x)),$$

where we assume that $`u_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}(t_i)=g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t_i)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$. We have $`w_nw:=(u(t_1),\mathrm{},u(t_k))`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^k)`$, where $`u(t_i)=g(t_i)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$. Note that for all $`n`$ we have $`S_{w_n}=_{i=1}^kS_{u_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}(t_i)}`$ so that

$$^1(S_{w_n})\lambda _n(t).$$

Passing to the limit for $`n+\mathrm{}`$ and applying Ambrosio’s Theorem we get

$$^1\left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}S_{u(t_i)}\right)=^1(S_w)\underset{n}{lim\; inf}^1(S_{w_n})\lambda (t);$$

we thus have

$$^1\left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}S^{g(t_i)}(u(t_i))\right)=^1(S_w)\lambda (t)$$

and taking the sup over all $`t_1,\mathrm{},t_k`$, we obtain (4.27) in $`D`$. The case $`tD`$ follows since $`^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$ is left continuous by definition.

###### Lemma 4.6.

For every $`t[0,1]`$ there exists $`u(t)SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that the following hold:

* for all $`t[0,1]`$

(4.28)
$$S^{g(t)}(u(t))\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\text{ up to a set of }^1\text{-measure }0,$$

and for all $`t[0,1]`$ and for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$

(4.29)
$$u(t)^2v^2+^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\right);$$
*
* $`u`$ is continuous in $`[0,1](D𝒩)`$ with respect to the strong topology of $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$;
*
* if $`\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$ is the set of discontinuities of the function $`\eta `$ defined in (4.26), for all $`t[0,1]\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$ we have that

$$u_{a_n}(t)u(t)\text{ strongly in }L^2(\mathrm{\Omega },^2).$$

Finally

(4.30)
$$(t)(0)+2_0^t_\mathrm{\Omega }u(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau ,$$

where

$$(t):=u(t)^2+^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)).$$

###### Proof.

The definition of $`u(t)`$ is carried out as in Lemma 4.3 considering $`t[0,1]D`$, $`t_nD`$ with $`t_nt`$, and the limit (up to a subsequence) of $`u(t_n)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$: (4.28) and (4.29) hold, so that point $`(a)`$ is proved. It turns out that $`u(t)`$ is uniquely determined and that it is left continuous in $`[0,1]D`$. Let us consider $`t[0,1](D𝒩)`$, and let $`t_nt`$. By Ambrosio’s Theorem, we have that there exists $`uSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ with such that, up to a subsequence, $`u(t_n)u`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$. Since $`t`$ is a continuity point of $`^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$, we deduce that $`S^{g(t)}(u)\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)`$ up to a set of $`^1`$-measure $`0`$. Moreover by the minimality property for $`u(t_n)`$ and the fact $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\mathrm{\Gamma }(t_n)`$, we have that for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ with

$$\begin{array}{c}u(t_n)^2vg(t)+g(t_n)^2+^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }(t_n)\right)\hfill \\ \hfill vg(t)+g(t_n)^2+^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\right),\end{array}$$

and so we deduce that (4.29) holds with $`u`$ in place of $`u(t)`$, and that $`u(t_n)u`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$. We obtain by uniqueness that $`u=u(t)`$, and so $`u()`$ is continuous in $`[0,1](D𝒩)`$ and this proves point $`(b)`$. Point $`(c)`$ follows in the same way of point $`(d)`$ of Lemma 4.3.

Let us come to the proof of (4.30). Given $`t[0,1]`$ and $`k>0`$, let $`s_i^k:=\frac{i}{k}t`$ for all $`i=0,\mathrm{},k`$. Let us set $`u^k(s):=u(s_{i+1}^k)`$ for $`s_i^k<ss_{i+1}^k`$. By (4.29), comparing $`u(s_i^k)`$ with $`u(s_{i+1}^k)g(s_{i+1}^k)+g(s_i^k)`$, it is easy to see that

$$(t)(0)+2_0^t_\mathrm{\Omega }u^k(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑\tau 𝑑x+o_k,$$

where $`o_k0`$ as $`k+\mathrm{}`$. Since $`u`$ is continuous with respect to the strong topology of $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$ in $`[0,1]`$ up to a countable set, passing to the limit for $`k+\mathrm{}`$ we deduce (4.30). ∎

We are now ready to prove the main result of the paper.

###### PROOF OF THEOREM 1.1.

Let $`D`$ be a countable and dense set in $`[0,1]`$ such that $`0D`$, and let $`(\delta _n,\epsilon _n,a_n)`$ and $`\{tu(t)SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }):t[0,1]\}`$ be the sequence and the evolution determined in Lemma 4.5 and Lemma 4.6. Let us set

$$u_n:=u_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n},\mathrm{\Gamma }_n:=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n},_n:=_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}.$$

Let $`\overline{𝒩}`$ be the union of the sets of discontinuities of $`\eta `$ and $`^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$, where $`\eta `$ is defined in (4.26). Let $`:=_{k=1}^+\mathrm{}_{h=k}^{\mathrm{}}_h`$, where $`_h`$ are as in Lemma 4.5; since $`|_{h=k}^{\mathrm{}}_h|<2^{k+1}`$, we have $`||=0`$. For all $`t[0,1](\overline{𝒩})`$ we claim that

(4.31)
$$u_n(t)u(t)\text{ strongly in }L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2).$$

In fact, since $`t_{h=k}^{\mathrm{}}_h`$ for some $`k`$, by Lemma 4.5 we have

$$\underset{n}{lim}u_{\epsilon _n,a_n}^{\delta _n}(t)u_{a_n}(t)=0;$$

for $`t\overline{𝒩}`$, by Lemma 4.6 we have that $`u_{a_n}(t)u(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$ and so (4.31) holds.

Since $`g_{\epsilon _n}g`$ strongly in $`W^{1,1}([0,1];H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }))`$, we deduce that for a.e. $`\tau [0,1]`$

$$\dot{g}_{\epsilon _n}(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )\text{ strongly in }L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2).$$

Since $`_n(0)(0)`$ by (4.25) and $`o_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}0`$, by semicontinuity of the energy and by (4.9) we have that for all $`tD`$

(4.32)
$$(t)\underset{n}{lim\; inf}_n(t)\underset{n}{lim\; sup}_n(t)(0)+2_0^t_\mathrm{\Omega }u(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau .$$

In view of (4.30), we conclude that for all $`tD`$

$$(t)=(0)+2_0^t_\mathrm{\Omega }u(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau ,$$

and since $`u()`$ and $`^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$ are left continuous at $`tD`$ and so $`()`$ is, we conclude that the equality holds for all $`t[0,1]`$. As a consequence $`\{tu(t),t[0,1]\}`$ is a quasi-static evolution of brittle fractures. Let us prove that (4.32) is indeed true for all $`t[0,1]`$. In fact, if $`tD`$, it is sufficient to prove

(4.33)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; inf}_n(t)(t).$$

Considering $`st`$ with $`sD`$, by (4.7) we have

$$_n(s)_n(t)+_{t_{j_n}^{\delta _n}}^{s_{j_n}^{\delta _n}}_\mathrm{\Omega }u_n(\tau )\dot{g}_{\epsilon _n}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau +o_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}t_{j_n}^{\delta _n}t<t_{j_n+1}^{\delta _n},s_{j_n}^{\delta _n}s<s_{j_n+1}^{\delta _n},$$

so that

$$\underset{n}{lim\; inf}_n(t)(s)_t^s_\mathrm{\Omega }u(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau .$$

Letting $`st`$, since $`()`$ is continuous, we have (4.33) holds. By (4.32) we deduce that $`_n(t)(t)`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$, so that point $`(b)`$ is proved.

We now come to point $`(a)`$. Since $`\lambda (t)^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$, by (4.31) and point $`(b)`$, we deduce that $`\lambda =^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$ in $`[0,1]`$ up to a set of measure $`0`$. Since they are increasing functions, we conclude that $`\lambda `$ and $`^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$ share the same set of continuity points $`[0,1]𝒩`$, and that $`\lambda =^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$ on $`[0,1]𝒩`$. In view of (4.31), point $`(a)`$ is thus established for all $`t`$ except $`t(\overline{𝒩})𝒩`$. In order to treat this case, we use the following argument. Considering the measures $`\mu _n:=^1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\Gamma }_n(t)`$, we have that, up to a subsequence, $`\mu _n\stackrel{}{}\mu `$ weakly-star in the sense of measures, and as a consequence of Ambrosio’s Theorem we have $`^1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\mu `$ as measures. Since $`t𝒩`$ we have $`\mu _n(^2)^1(\mathrm{\Gamma }(t))`$, and so we deduce $`^1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)=\mu `$. Let us consider now $`u_n(t)`$; we have up to a subsequence $`u_n(t)u`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for some $`uSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$. Setting $`u_n(t):=g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t)`$ and $`u:=g(t)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$, we have $`u_n(t)u`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$, and as a consequence of Ambrosio’s Theorem, we get that $`^1\text{ }\text{ }S^{g(t)}(u)\mu =^1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)`$, that is $`S^{g(t)}(u)\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)`$. By Theorem 2.3, we deduce that $`u`$ is a minimum for

$$\mathrm{min}\{v^2:S^{g(t)}(v)\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\text{ up to a set of }^1\text{-measure }0\text{ }\},$$

and by uniqueness of the gradient we get that $`u=u(t)`$, so that the proof is concluded. ∎

## 5. Piecewise Affine Transfer of Jump and Proof of Proposition 4.2

The proof of Proposition 4.2 is based on the following proposition, which is a variant of Theorem 2.3 in the context of piecewise affine approximation.

###### Proposition 5.1.

Given $`\epsilon _n0`$, let $`g_n^rH^1(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ be such that $`g_n^r𝒜_{\epsilon _n}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ and $`g_n^rg^r`$ strongly in $`H^1(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for all $`r=0,\mathrm{},i`$. If $`u_n^r𝒜_{\epsilon _n,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ is such that $`u_n^ru^r`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for $`r=0,\mathrm{},i`$, then for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ with $`^1\left(S^{g^i}(v)\right)<+\mathrm{}`$ and $`vL^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$, there exists $`v_n𝒜_{\epsilon _n,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ such that $`v_nv`$ strongly in $`L^1(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, $`v_nv`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$ and

(5.1)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}^1\left(S^{g_n^i}(v_n)\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S^{g_n^r}(u_n^r)\right)\mu (a)^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S^{g^r}(u^r)\right),$$

where $`\mu :]0;\frac{1}{2}[`$ with $`lim_{a0^+}\mu (a)=1`$.

In view of Proposition 5.1, we can now prove Proposition 4.2.

###### Proof of Proposition 4.2..

Notice that, in order to prove (4.14), it is sufficient to prove the existence of $`\mu :]0;\frac{1}{2}[`$ with $`lim_{a0^+}\mu (a)=1`$ such that, given $`tD`$, for every $`0=t_0\mathrm{}t_r\mathrm{}t_i=t`$, $`t_rD`$, for all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ we have

(5.2)
$$u_a(t)^2v^2+\mu (a)^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S^{g(t_r)}(u_a(t_r))\right).$$

In fact, taking the sup over all possible $`t_0,\mathrm{},t_i`$, we get (4.14).

We apply Proposition 5.1 considering $`g_n^r:=g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t_r)`$, $`g^r:=g(t_r)`$, $`u_n^r:=u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t_r)`$, and $`u^r:=u_a(t_r)`$ for $`r=0,\mathrm{},i`$. There exists $`\mu :]0;\frac{1}{2}[`$ with $`lim_{a0^+}\mu (a)=1`$ such that for $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, there exists $`v_n𝒜_{\epsilon _n,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ with $`v_nv`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$ and

$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{n}{lim\; sup}^1\left(S^{g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t)}(v_n)\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S^{g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t_r)}(u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t_r))\right)\hfill \\ \hfill \mu (a)^1\left(S^{g(t)}(v)\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S^{g(t_r)}(u_a(t_r))\right),\end{array}$$

Comparing $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)`$ and $`v_n`$ by means of (4.6), we obtain

(5.3)
$$\begin{array}{c}u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)^2v_n^2+^1\left(S^{g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t)}(v_n)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)\right)\hfill \\ \hfill v_n^2+^1\left(S^{g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t)}(v_n)\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S^{g_{\epsilon _n}^{\delta _n}(t_r)}(u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t_r))\right),\end{array}$$

so that, passing to the limit for $`n+\mathrm{}`$, we obtain that (5.2) holds. Moreover, we have that choosing $`v=u_a(t)`$, and taking the limsup in (5.3), we get that $`u_{\epsilon _n,a}^{\delta _n}(t)u_a(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega };^2)`$. ∎

The rest of the section is devoted to the proof of Proposition 5.1. It will be convenient, as in Section 4, to consider $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ polygonal open bounded subset of $`^2`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_D=_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ up to a finite number of vertices; we set $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}:=\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_D_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$. We suppose that $`𝐑_\epsilon `$ can be extended to a regular triangulation of $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ which we still indicate by $`𝐑_\epsilon `$.

We need several preliminary results. Let us set $`z_n^r:=u_n^rg_n^r`$, and let us extend $`z_n^r`$ to zero on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$. Similarly, we set $`z^r:=u^rg^r`$, and we extend $`z^r`$ to zero on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$.

Let $`\sigma >0`$, and let $`C`$ be the set of corners of $`_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Let us fix $`G`$ countable and dense: we recall that for all $`r=0,\mathrm{},i`$ we have up to a set of $`^1`$-measure zero

$$S_{z^r}=\underset{c_1,c_2G}{}^{}E_{c_1}(r)^{}E_{c_2}(r),$$

where $`E_c(r):=\{x\mathrm{\Omega }^{}:z^r(x)>c\}`$ and $`^{}`$ denotes the essential boundary (see ). Let us consider

$$J_j:=\{x\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{z^r}C:(z^l)^+(x)(z^l)^{}(x)>\frac{1}{j}\text{ for some }l=0,\mathrm{},i\},$$

with $`j`$ so large that $`^1(_{r=0}^iS_{z^r}J_j)\sigma `$. Let $`U`$ be a neighborhood of $`_{r=0}^iS_{z^r}`$ such that $`|U|\frac{\sigma }{j^2}`$. Following \[10, Theorem 2.1\] (see Fig.3), we can find a finite disjoint collection of closed cubes $`\{Q_k\}_{k=1,\mathrm{},K}`$ with center $`x_kJ_j`$, edge of length $`2r_k`$ and oriented as the normal $`\nu (x_k)`$ to $`S_{z^{r(k)}}`$ at $`x_k`$, such that $`_{k=1}^KQ_kU`$ and $`^1(J_j_{k=1}^KQ_k)\sigma `$. Moreover for all $`k=1,\mathrm{},K`$ there exists $`r(k)\{0,\mathrm{},i\}`$ and $`c_1(r(k)),c_2(r(k))>0`$ such that

$$^1\left(\left[\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{z^r}S_{z^{r(k)}}\right]Q_k\right)\sigma r_k,$$

and the following hold

* if $`x_k\mathrm{\Omega }`$ then $`Q_k\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and if $`x_k_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ then $`Q_k_D\mathrm{\Omega }=H_k`$, where $`H_k`$ denotes the intersection of $`Q_k`$ with the straight line through $`x_k`$ orthogonal to $`\nu (x_k)`$;
*
* $`^1(S_{z^{r(k)}}Q_k)=0`$;
*
* $`r_kc^1(S_{z^{r(k)}}Q_k)`$ for some $`c>0`$;
*
* $`(z^{r(k)})^{}(x)<c_1(r(k))<c_2(r(k))<(z^{r(k)})^+(x)`$ and $`c_2(r(k))c_1(r(k))\frac{1}{2j}`$;
*
* $`^1([S_{z^{r(k)}}^{}E_{c_s(r(k))}(r(k))]Q_k)\sigma r_k`$ for $`s=1,2`$;
*
* if $`s=1,2`$, $`^1(\{y^{}E_{c_s(r(k))}(r(k))Q_k:\mathrm{dist}(y,H_k)\frac{\sigma }{2}r_k\})<\sigma r_k`$;
*
* if $`Q_k^+:=\{xQ_k|x\nu (x_k)>0\}`$ and $`s=1,2`$

(5.4)
$$1_{E_{c_s(r(k))}(r(k))Q_k}1_{Q_k^+}_{L^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})}\sigma ^2r_k^2;$$
*
* $`^1((S_vS_{z^{r(k)}})Q_k)<\sigma r_k`$ and $`^1(S_vQ_k)=0`$.

Let us indicate by $`R_k`$ the intersection of $`Q_k`$ with the strip centered in $`H_k`$ with width $`2\sigma r_k`$, and let us set $`V_k^\pm :=\{x_k\pm r_ke(x_k)+s\nu (x_k):s\}R_k`$, where $`e(x_k)`$ is such that $`\{e(x_k),\nu (x_k)\}`$ is an orthonormal base of $`^2`$ with the same orientation of the canonical one.

For all $`B\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$, let us set

$$_n(B):=\{T𝐑_{\epsilon _n}:TB\mathrm{}\},𝒯_n^k(B):=\{T𝐓(z_n^{r(k)}):TB\mathrm{}\}.$$

In the following, we will often indicate with the same symbol a family of triangles and their support in $`^2`$, being clear from the context in which sense has to be intended. We will consider $`z_n^{r(k)}`$ defined pointwise in $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{S}_{z_n^{r(k)}}`$ and so the upper levels of $`z_n^{r(k)}`$ are intended as subsets of $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{S}_{z_n^{r(k)}}`$.

###### Lemma 5.2.

For all $`k=1,\mathrm{},K`$ there exists $`c_n^k[c_1(r(k)),c_2(r(k))]`$ such that, setting $`E_n^k:=\{x_n(Q_k):z_n^{r(k)}(x)>c_n^k\}`$, we have

(5.5)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}^1\left(\left(_{_n(Q_k)}E_n^k\right)S_{z_n^{r(k)}}\right)=o_\sigma ,$$

and

(5.6)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}1_{E_n^k}1_{Q_k^+}_{L^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})}\sigma ^2r_k^2,$$

where $`_{_n(Q_k)}`$ denotes the boundary operator in $`_n(Q_k)`$, and $`o_\sigma 0`$ as $`\sigma 0`$.

###### Proof.

Note that for $`n`$ large we have $`_{k=1}^K_n(Q_k)U`$, so that $`|_{k=1}^K_n(Q_k)|\frac{\sigma }{j^2}`$. By Hölder inequality and since $`z_n^rC^{}`$ for all $`r=0,\mathrm{},i`$, it follows that

$$\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}_{\{_k_n(Q_k):r(k)=r\}}|z_n^r|𝑑x\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}z_n^r\frac{\sqrt{\sigma }}{j}(i+1)C^{}\frac{\sqrt{\sigma }}{j}.$$

Following \[10, Theorem 2.1\], we can apply coarea-formula for BV-functions (see ) taking into account that $`z_n^{r(k)}`$ belongs to $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ so that the singular part of the derivative is carried only by $`S_{z_n^{r(k)}}`$: since for $`n`$ large the $`_n(Q_k)`$’s are disjoint, we obtain

(5.7)
$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}_{}^1\left(\left(E_{c,n}(r(k))_n(Q_k)\right)S_{z_n^{r(k)}}\right)𝑑c(i+1)C^{}\frac{\sqrt{\sigma }}{j},$$

where $`E_{c,n}(r(k)):=\{x\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{S}_{z_n^{r(k)}}:z_n^{r(k)}(x)>c\}`$, and so

$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}_{c_1(r(k))}^{c_2(r(k))}^1\left(\left(E_{c,n}(r(k))_n(Q_k)\right)S_{z_n^{r(k)}}\right)𝑑c(i+1)C^{}\frac{\sqrt{\sigma }}{j}.$$

Notice that we can use the topological boundary instead of the reduced boundary of $`E_{c,n}(r(k))`$ in (5.7) since $`z_n^{r(k)}`$ is piecewise affine, and so $`E_{c,n}(r(k))^{}E_{c,n}(r(k))\mathrm{}`$ just for a finite number of $`c`$’s. By the Mean Value Theorem we have that there exist $`c_n^k[c_1(r(k)),c_2(r(k))]`$ such that

$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}^1\left(\left(E_{c_n^k,n}(r(k))_n(Q_k)\right)S_{z_n^{r(k)}}\right)2iC^{}\sqrt{\sigma },$$

and taking the limsup for $`n+\mathrm{}`$, we get (5.5). Let us come to (5.6). Since

$$E_{c_2(r(k)),n}(r(k))E_{c_n^k,n}(r(k))E_{c_1(r(k)),n}(r(k)),$$

by (5.4) we have that for $`n`$ large

$$1_{E_{c_n^k,n}(r(k))Q_k}1_{Q_k^+}_{L^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})}\sigma ^2r_k^2,$$

and so, since $`|_n(Q_k)Q_k|0`$, we conclude that (5.6) holds. ∎

Fix $`k\{1,\mathrm{},K\}`$, and let us consider the family $`𝒯_n^k(E_n^k)`$. Let us modify this family in the following way. Let $`T𝒯_n^k(E_n^k)`$; we keep it if $`|TE_n^k|>\frac{1}{2}|T|`$, and we erase it otherwise. Let $`E_n^{k,+}`$ be this new family of triangles, and let $`E_n^{k,}`$ be its complement in $`𝒯_n^k(_n(Q_k))`$.

###### Lemma 5.3.

For all $`k=1,\mathrm{},K`$ we have

(5.8)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}^1\left(_{_n(Q_k)}E_n^{k,+}S_{z_n^{r(k)}}\right)=o_\sigma ,$$

and

(5.9)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}1_{E_n^{k,+}}1_{Q_k^+}_14\sigma ^2r_k^2,$$

where $`o_\sigma 0`$ as $`\sigma 0`$.

###### Proof.

Let $`T𝒯_n^k(E_n^k)`$. Since $`z_n^{r(k)}`$ is affine on $`T`$, it follows that $`TE_n^k`$ is either a triangle with at least two edges contained in the edges of $`T`$ or a trapezoid with three edges contained in the edges of $`T`$. Let $`l(T)`$ be the edge inside $`T`$ where $`z_n^{r(k)}=c_n^k`$, where $`c_n^k`$ is the value determining $`E_n^k`$ (we consider $`l(T)=\mathrm{}`$ if $`\mathrm{int}(T)E_n^k`$). In the case $`TE_n^{k,+}`$ as in the case $`TE_n^{k,}`$, since the angles of the triangles of $`𝐓(z_n^{r(k)})`$ are uniformly bounded away from $`0`$ and from $`\pi `$, arguing as in Lemma 2.4, we deduce that keeping or erasing $`T`$, we increase $`_{_n(Q_k)}E_n^k`$ of a quantity which is less than $`c^1(l(T))`$ with $`c`$ independent of $`\epsilon _n`$. Then we have

$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}^1(_{_n(Q_k)}E_n^{k,+}_{_n(Q_k)}E_n^k)\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}\underset{T𝒯_n^k(E_n^k)}{}c^1(l(T))c\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}^1(_{_n(Q_k)}E_n^kS_{z_n^{r(k)}}),$$

so that taking the limsup for $`n+\mathrm{}`$ and in view of (5.5) we deduce that (5.8) holds.

Let us come to (5.9). Note that $`|𝒯_n^k(Q_k^+)|0`$ as $`n+\mathrm{}`$. Then if $`A_n^{k,+}:=\{T𝐓(z_n^{r(k)}):T\mathrm{int}(Q_k^+)\}`$, for $`n`$ large we have

$$|Q_k^+E_n^{k,+}||A_n^{k,+}E_n^{k,+}|+|𝒯_n^k(Q_k^+)|2|Q_k^+E_n^k|+|𝒯_n^k(Q_k^+)|,$$

where the last inequality follows by construction of $`E_n^{k,+}`$. Taking the limsup for $`n+\mathrm{}`$, in view of (5.6) we get

$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}|Q_k^+E_n^{k,+}|2\sigma ^2r_k^2.$$

The inequality $`lim\; sup_n|E_n^{k,+}Q_k^+|2\sigma ^2r_k^2`$ follows analogously. ∎

For all $`k=1,\mathrm{},K`$ and $`s`$, let us set

$$H_k(s):=\{x+s\nu (x_k),xH_k\}.$$

###### Lemma 5.4.

There exist $`s_n^+]\frac{\sigma }{4}r_k,\frac{\sigma }{2}r_k[`$ and $`s_n^{}]\frac{\sigma }{2}r_k,\frac{\sigma }{4}r_k[`$ such that, setting $`H_n^{k,+}:=H_k(s_n^+)`$ and $`H_n^{k,}:=H_k(s_n^{})`$ we have for $`n`$ large enough

$$^1(H_n^{k,+}E_n^{k,+})20\sigma r_k,^1(H_n^{k,}E_n^{k,+})20\sigma r_k.$$

###### Proof.

By (5.9) we can write for $`n`$ large

$$_{\frac{\sigma }{4}r_k}^{\frac{\sigma }{2}r_k}^1(H_k(s)E_n^{k,+})𝑑s5\sigma ^2r_k^2,$$

so that we get $`s_n^+]\frac{\sigma }{4}r_k,\frac{\sigma }{2}r_k[`$ with

$$^1(H_k(s_n^+)E_n^{k,+})20\sigma r_k.$$

Similarly we can reason for $`s_n^{}`$. ∎

Let $`S_n^{k,+}`$ be the straight line containing $`H_n^{k,+}`$: up to replacing $`H_n^{k,+}`$ by the connected component of $`S_n^{k,+}_n(Q_k)`$ to which it belongs, we may suppose that $`H_n^{k,+}E_n^{k,+}`$ is a finite union of segments $`l_j^+`$ with extremes $`A_j`$ and $`B_j`$ belonging to the edges of the triangles of $`𝒯_n^k(_n(Q_k))`$ such that for $`n`$ large

$$^1(H_n^{k,+}E_n^{k,+})=^1\left(\underset{j=1}{\overset{m}{}}l_j^+\right)20\sigma r_k.$$

By Lemma 2.4, for all $`j`$ there exists a curve $`L_j^+`$ inside the edges of the triangles of $`𝒯_n^k(_n(Q_k))`$ joining $`A_j`$ and $`B_j`$ and such that

(5.10)
$$^1(L_j^+)c^1(l_j^+),$$

with $`c`$ independent of $`\epsilon _n`$. Let us set

$$\gamma _n^{k,+}:=L_1^+B_1A_2L_2^+\mathrm{}B_{m1}A_mL_m^+.$$

Similarly, let us construct $`\gamma _n^{k,}`$ relative to $`H_n^{k,}E_n^+`$. Note that for $`n`$ large enough $`\gamma _n^{k,+}H_k(\sigma )=\mathrm{}`$, $`\gamma _n^{k,}H_k(\sigma )=\mathrm{}`$, and $`\gamma _n^{k,+}\gamma _n^{k,}=\mathrm{}`$. Let us consider the connected component $`𝒞_k^+`$ of $`_n(Q_k)\gamma _n^{k,+}`$ containing $`H_k(\sigma )`$. Similarly, let us consider the connected component $`𝒞_k^{}`$ of $`_n(Q_k)\gamma _n^{k,}`$ containing $`H_k(\sigma )`$. For $`n`$ large enough, by (5.10)

(5.11)
$$^1\left(_{_n(Q_k)}𝒞_k^+\underset{i=1}{\overset{m1}{}}B_iA_{i+1}\right)c\underset{j=1}{\overset{m}{}}^1(l_j^+)20c\sigma r_k.$$

A similar estimate holds for $`_{_n(Q_k)}𝒞_k^{}`$.

Let $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}`$ be the family of triangles obtained adding to $`E_n^{k,+}`$ those $`TE_n^{k,}`$ such that $`T𝒞_k^+`$, and subtracting those $`TE_n^{k,+}`$ such that $`T𝒞_k^{}`$. Let $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,}`$ be the complement of $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}`$ in $`𝒯_n^k(_n(Q_k))`$.

We claim that there exists $`C>0`$ independent of $`n`$ such that for all $`k=1,\mathrm{},K`$ and for $`n`$ large

(5.12)
$$^1\left(_{_n(Q_k)}\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}_{_n(Q_k)}E_n^{k,+}\right)C\sigma r_k.$$

In fact, let $`\zeta `$ be an edge of $`_{_n(Q_k)}\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}_{_n(Q_k)}E_n^{k,+}`$, that is $`\zeta `$ belongs to a triangle $`T`$ that has been changed in the operation above described. Let us assume for instance that $`TE_n^{k,}`$ and $`T𝒞_k^+`$. If $`T^{}`$ is such that $`TT^{}=\zeta `$, then $`T^{}E_n^{k,}`$: in fact if by contradiction $`T^{}E_n^{k,+}`$, then $`T^{}\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}`$ and so we would have $`\zeta _{_n(Q_k)}\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}`$ which is absurd. Similarly we get $`T^{}𝒞_k^+`$. This means that $`\zeta _{_n(Q_k)}𝒞_k^+`$, and since the horizontal edges of $`\gamma _n^{k,+}`$ intersect by construction only elements of $`E_n^{k,+}`$, we deduce that $`\zeta _{_n(Q_k)}𝒞_k^+\left(_{i=1}^mA_iB_i\right)`$, and by (5.11) we conclude that (5.12) holds.

We can summarize the previous results as follows.

###### Lemma 5.5.

For all $`k=1,\mathrm{},K`$ there exist two families $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,}`$ of triangles with $`𝒯_n^k(_n(Q_k))=\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,}`$, $`Q_k^+R_k\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}`$ and $`Q_k^{}R_k\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,}`$, and such that

(5.13)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}^1\left(_{_n(Q_k)}\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}S_{z_n^{r(k)}}\right)=o_\sigma ,$$

where $`o_\sigma 0`$ as $`\sigma 0`$. Moreover, in the case $`x_k_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$, we can modify $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}`$ or $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,}`$ in such a way that $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}\mathrm{\Omega }`$ or $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,}\mathrm{\Omega }`$.

###### Proof.

We have that (5.13) follows from (5.8) and (5.12), and the fact that $`_{k=1}^Kr_kc`$, with $`c`$ independent of $`\sigma `$. Let us consider the case $`x_k_D\mathrm{\Omega }`$ with $`Q_k^+R_k\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (the other case being similar). From (5.13) we have that for $`n`$ large $`_{k=1}^K^1\left(_{_n(Q_k)}\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}Q_k^{}\right)o_\sigma `$ because $`z_n^{r(k)}=R_{\epsilon _n}g_{h_n}(r(k))`$ on $`Q_k^{}`$ and so there are no jumps in $`Q_k^{}`$. We can thus redefine $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}`$ subtracting those triangles that are in $`Q_k^{}`$ obtaining again (5.13). ∎

We are now in position to prove Proposition 5.1.

###### Proof of Proposition 5.1..

We work in the context of $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$. For all $`vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ with $`v=g^i`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$, $`^1(S_v)<+\mathrm{}`$ and $`vL^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^2)`$, we have to construct $`v_nSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ such that $`v_n=g_n^i`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$, $`(v_n)_{|\mathrm{\Omega }}𝒜_{\epsilon _n,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$, $`v_nv`$ strongly in $`L^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$, $`v_nv`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^2)`$ and

(5.14)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}^1\left(S_{v_n}\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{u_n^r}\right)\mu (a)^1\left(S_v\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{u^r}\right),$$

where we suppose that $`u_n^r`$ and $`u^r`$ are extended to $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ setting $`u_n^r:=g_n^r`$, and $`u^r:=g^r`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ respectively.

We set $`v=g^i+w`$, where $`wSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ with $`w=0`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$. By density, it is sufficient to consider the case $`wL^{\mathrm{}}(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$. Up to reducing $`U`$, we may assume that $`g^i_{L^2(U;^2)}<\sigma `$ and $`w_{L^2(U;^2)}<\sigma `$. Let $`R_k^{}`$ be a rectangle centered in $`x_k`$, oriented as $`R_k`$, and such that $`\overline{R_k^{}}\mathrm{int}R_k`$ and $`^1(S_w(R_kR_k^{}))<\sigma r_k`$. We claim that there exists $`w_\sigma SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ with $`w_\sigma =w`$ on $`_{k=1}^KR_k^{}`$ and $`w_\sigma =0`$ in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ such that

*
* $`ww_\sigma +ww_\sigma \sigma `$;
*
* $`^1(S_{w_\sigma }(Q_kR_k^{}))o_\sigma r_k`$, with $`o_\sigma 0`$ as $`\sigma 0`$;
*
* $`^1(S_{w_\sigma }_{k=1}^KR_k)^1(S_w_{k=1}^KR_k)+\sigma `$;
*
* $`S_{w_\sigma }_{k=1}^KR_k`$ is union of disjoint segments with closure contained in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{k=1}^KR_k`$;
*
* $`w_\sigma `$ is of class $`W^{2,\mathrm{}}`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }\left(_{k=1}^KR_k\overline{S_{w_\sigma }}\right)`$.

In fact, by Proposition 2.7, there exists $`w_mSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ with $`w_m=0`$ in $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ such that $`w_mw`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$, $`w_mw`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^2)`$, $`S_{w_m}`$ is polyhedral with $`\overline{S_{w_m}}\mathrm{\Omega }`$, $`w_m`$ is of class $`W^{2,\mathrm{}}`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }\left(_{k=1}^KR_k\overline{S_{w_m}}\right)`$, and $`lim_m^1(AS_{w_m})=^1(AS_w)`$ for all $`A`$ open subset of $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ with $`^1(AS_w)=0`$. It is not restrictive to assume that $`^1(S_wR_k)=0`$ and $`^1(S_{w_m}R_k)=0`$ for all $`m`$. Let $`\psi _k`$ be a smooth function such that $`0\psi _k1`$, $`\psi _k=1`$ on $`R_k^{}`$ and $`\psi _k=0`$ outside $`R_k`$. Setting $`\psi :=_{k=1}^K\psi _k`$, let us consider $`\stackrel{~}{w}_m:=\psi w+(1\psi )w_m`$. Note that $`\stackrel{~}{w}_mw`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$, $`\stackrel{~}{w}_mw`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^2)`$, $`\stackrel{~}{w}_m=0`$ in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$. Moreover, by capacity arguments, we may assume that $`S_{\stackrel{~}{w}_m}_{k=1}^KR_k`$ is a finite union of disjoint segments with closure contained in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{k=1}^KR_k`$. Finally, for $`m+\mathrm{}`$, we have

$$^1(S_{\stackrel{~}{w}_m}\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}R_k)^1(S_w\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}R_k)),$$

$$^1(S_{\stackrel{~}{w}_m}\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}(Q_kR_k))^1(S_w\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}(Q_kR_k))$$

and $`lim\; sup_m^1(S_{\stackrel{~}{w}_m}(R_kR_k^{}))2^1(S_w(R_kR_k^{}))2\sigma r_k.`$ Then we can take $`w_\sigma :=\stackrel{~}{w}_m`$ for $`m`$ large enough.

Let $`S_{w_\sigma }_{k=1}^KQ_k:=_{j=1}^ml_j`$, where, by capacity arguments, we can always assume that $`l_j`$ are disjoint segments with closure contained in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{k=1}^KQ_k`$. We define a triangulation $`𝐓_n𝒯_{\epsilon _n,a}(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ specifying its adaptive vertices as follows. Let us consider the families $`_n(Q_k)`$ and $`_n(l_j)`$ for $`k=1,\mathrm{},K`$ and $`j=1,\mathrm{},m`$. Note that for $`n`$ large enough, $`_n(Q_{k_1})_n(Q_{k_2})=\mathrm{}`$ for $`k_1k_2`$, $`_n(l_{j_1})_n(l_{j_2})=\mathrm{}`$ for $`j_1j_2`$, and $`_n(Q_k)_n(l_j)=\mathrm{}`$ for every $`k,j`$. We consider inside the triangles of $`_n(Q_k)`$ the adaptive vertices of $`𝐓(z_n^{r(k)})`$. Passing to $`_n(l_j)`$, by density arguments it is not restrictive to assume that $`l_j`$ does not pass through the vertices of $`𝐑_{\epsilon _n}`$ and that its extremes belong to the edges of $`𝐑_{\epsilon _n}`$. Let $`\zeta :=[x,y]`$ be an edge of $`_n(l_j)`$ such that $`l_j\zeta =\{P\}`$. Proceeding as in , we take as adaptive vertex of $`\zeta `$ the projection of $`P`$ on $`\{tx+(1t)y:t[a,(1a)]\}`$. Connecting these adaptive vertices, we obtain an interpolating polyhedral curve $`\stackrel{~}{l}_j`$ with

(5.15)
$$^1(\stackrel{~}{l}_j)\mu (a)^1(l_j),$$

where $`\mu `$ is an increasing function such that $`lim_{a0}\mu (a)=1`$. Finally, in the remaining edges, we can consider any admissible adaptive vertex, for example the middle point.

Let us define $`w_nSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ in the following way. For all $`Q_k`$, let $`w_n`$ be equal to $`w_\sigma `$ on $`_n(Q_k)R_k`$, equal to the reflection of $`w_{\sigma }^{}{}_{|Q_k^+R_k}{}^{}`$ with respect to $`H_k(\sigma )`$ on $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}R_k`$ and equal to the reflection of $`w_{\sigma }^{}{}_{|Q_k^{}R_k}{}^{}`$ with respect to $`H_k(\sigma )`$ on $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,}R_k`$, where $`\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,\pm }`$ are defined as in Lemma 5.5. On the other elements of $`𝐓_n`$, let us set $`w_n=w_\sigma `$. Notice that $`w_n=0`$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ and that inside each $`_n(Q_k)`$, all the discontinuities of $`w_n`$ are contained in $`_{_n(Q_k)}\stackrel{~}{E}_n^{k,+}V_kP_{w_\sigma }^k`$, where $`P_{w_\sigma }^k`$ is the union of the polyhedral jumps of $`w_\sigma `$ in $`_n(Q_k)`$ and of their reflected version with respect to $`H_k(\pm \sigma )`$. By Lemma 5.5 and since $`_{k=1}^K^1(V_kP_{w_\sigma }^k)o_\sigma `$ with $`o_\sigma 0`$ as $`\sigma 0`$, and $`^1\left(_{r=0}^iS_{z^r}_{k=1}^KQ_k\right)2\sigma `$, we have that

$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{n}{lim\; sup}^1\left(S_{w_n}\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{z_n^r}\right)\hfill \\ \hfill ^1\left(S_{w_\sigma }\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}Q_k\right)+\underset{n}{lim\; sup}^1\left((S_{w_n}\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{z_n^r})_n(Q_k)\right)\\ \hfill ^1\left(S_{w_\sigma }\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{z^r}\right)+^1\left(\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{z^r}\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}Q_k\right)+o_\sigma \\ \hfill ^1\left(S_{w_\sigma }\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{z^r}\right)+o_\sigma ,\end{array}$$

and since $`w_\sigma _{L^2(U;^2)}o_\sigma `$ we get for $`n`$ large

(5.16)
$$w_n_{L^2(_{k=1}^K_n(Q_k))}^2o_\sigma .$$

We now want to define an interpolation $`\stackrel{~}{w}_n`$ of $`w_n`$ on $`𝐓_n`$. Firstly, we set $`\stackrel{~}{w}_n=0`$ on all regular triangles of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$. Passing to the triangles in $`_n(Q_k)`$ (see fig.4), by Lemma 2.5, we know that for $`n`$ large enough, we have

$$^1(_n(V_k))c^1(V_k),^1(_n(P_{w_\sigma }^k))c^1(P_{w_\sigma }^k),$$

with $`c`$ independent of $`n`$. If $`T_n(V_k)_n(P_{w_\sigma }^k)`$, we set $`\stackrel{~}{w}_n=0`$ on $`T`$; otherwise, we define $`\stackrel{~}{w}_n`$ on $`T`$ as the affine interpolation of $`w_n`$.

Since $`\stackrel{~}{w}_n`$ is uniformly bounded on $`_n(H_k(\pm \sigma ))`$, $`|_n(H_k(\pm \sigma ))|0`$ and since $`w_n`$ is uniformly bounded in $`W^{2,\mathrm{}}`$ on the triangles contained in $`_n(Q_k)_n(V_kP_{w_\sigma }^kH_k(\pm \sigma ))`$ we have by the interpolation estimate (2.3) and by (5.16)

(5.17)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}\stackrel{~}{w}_n_{L^2(_{k=1}^K_n(Q_k))}^2o_\sigma .$$

Moreover we have

(5.18)
$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{}}^1\left(\left(S_{\stackrel{~}{w}_n}\underset{r=0}{\overset{k}{}}S_{z_n^r}\right)_n(Q_k)\right)o_\sigma .$$

Let us come to the triangles not belonging to $`_n(Q_k)`$ for $`k=1,\mathrm{},K`$. For all $`j=1,\mathrm{},m`$, we denote by $`\widehat{}_n(l_j)`$ the family of regular triangles that have edges in common with triangles of $`_n(l_j)`$. For $`n`$ large we have that $`\widehat{}_n(l_{j_1})\widehat{}_n(l_{j_2})=\mathrm{}`$ for $`j_1j_2`$. On every regular triangle $`T_{k=1}^K_n(Q_k)_{j=1}^m\widehat{}_n(l_j)`$, we define $`\stackrel{~}{w}_n`$ as the affine interpolation of $`w_\sigma `$. Since $`w_\sigma `$ is of class $`W^{2,\mathrm{}}`$ on $`T`$ and $`T`$ is regular, we obtain by the interpolation estimate (2.3)

(5.19)
$$\stackrel{~}{w}_nw_\sigma _{W^{1,2}(T)}^2K\epsilon _nw_\sigma _{W^{2,\mathrm{}}}.$$

Let us consider now those triangles that are contained in the elements of $`_{j=1}^m\widehat{}_n(l_j)`$. Following , we can define $`\stackrel{~}{w}_n`$ on every $`T`$ in such a way that $`\stackrel{~}{w}_n`$ admits discontinuities only on $`\stackrel{~}{l}_j`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{w}_n_{L^{\mathrm{}}(T)}w_\sigma _{\mathrm{}}`$. Since $`|\widehat{}_n(l_j)|0`$ as $`n\mathrm{}`$, we deduce that

(5.20)
$$\underset{n}{lim}\stackrel{~}{w}_n_{L^2(\widehat{}_n(l_j))}^2=0.$$

Moreover by (5.15) and since $`^1\left(_{r=0}^iS_{z^r}_{k=1}^KQ_k\right)2\sigma `$, we have

(5.21)
$$^1\left(S_{\stackrel{~}{w}_n}\underset{j=1}{\overset{m}{}}\widehat{}_n(l_j)\right)\mu (a)^1\left(S_{w_\sigma }\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}S_{z^r}\right)+o_\sigma ,$$

where $`o_\sigma 0`$ as $`\sigma 0`$.

We are now ready to conclude. Let us consider $`\widehat{w}_n𝒜_{\epsilon _n,a}(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ defined as $`\widehat{w}_n:=g_n^i+\stackrel{~}{w}_n`$. We have $`\widehat{w}_ng^i+w_\sigma `$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$. By (5.17), (5.19), (5.20) we get

$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}\widehat{w}_n^2g^i+w_\sigma ^2+o_\sigma ,$$

while by (5.18) and (5.21) we have

$$\underset{n}{lim\; sup}^1\left(S_{\widehat{w}_n}\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{z_n^r}\right)\mu (a)^1\left(S_{w_\sigma }\underset{r=0}{\overset{i}{}}S_{z^r}\right)+o_\sigma .$$

Letting now $`\sigma 0`$, using a diagonal argument, we conclude that Proposition 5.1 holds. ∎

## 6. Revisiting the approximation by Francfort and Larsen

In this section we show how the arguments of Section 4 may be used to deal with the discrete in time approximation of quasi-static growth of brittle fractures proposed by Francfort and Larsen in . More precisely, we prove that there is strong convergence of the gradient of the displacement (in particular convergence of the bulk energy) and convergence of the surface energy at all times of continuity of the length of the crack; moreover there is convergence of the total energy at any time.

We briefly recall the notation employed in . Let $`I_{\mathrm{}}`$ be countable and dense in $`[0,1]`$, and let $`I_n:=\{0=t_0^n\mathrm{}t_n^n=1\}`$ such that $`(I_n)`$ is an increasing sequence of sets whose union is $`I_{\mathrm{}}`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }^N`$ be a Lipschitz bounded domain, and let $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{\Omega }_f^c\mathrm{\Omega }_f`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_f^c`$ is open in the relative topology. Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}^N`$ be open and such that $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$, and let $`gW^{1,1}([0,1];H^1(\mathrm{\Omega }^{}))`$. At any time $`t_k^n`$, Francfort and Larsen consider $`u_k^n`$ minimizer of

$$_\mathrm{\Omega }|v|^2𝑑x+^{N1}\left(S_v\left[\underset{0jk1}{}S_{u_j^n}\mathrm{\Omega }_f\right]\right)$$

in $`\{vSBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{}):v=g(t_k^n)\text{ in }\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}\}`$. Setting $`u^n(t):=u_k^n`$ for $`t[t_k^n,t_{k+1}^n[`$, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^n(t):=_{st,sI_n}S_{u^n(s)}\mathrm{\Omega }_f`$, they prove that

(6.1)
$$^n(t)^n(0)+2_0^{t_k^n}_\mathrm{\Omega }u^n(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )dxd\tau +o_n,t[t_k^n,t_{k+1}^n[,$$

where $`^n(t):=_\mathrm{\Omega }|u^n(t)|^2𝑑x+^{N1}\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }^n(t)\right)`$ and $`o_n0`$ as $`n+\mathrm{}`$. Using Theorem 2.3, they obtain a subsequence of $`(u^n())`$, still denoted by the same symbol, such that $`u^n(t)u(t)`$ in $`SBV(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$ and $`u^n(t)u(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^N)`$ for all $`tI_{\mathrm{}}`$, with $`u(t)`$ a minimizer of

$$_\mathrm{\Omega }|v|^2𝑑x+^{N1}\left(S_v\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\right),$$

where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(t):=_{sI_{\mathrm{}},st}S_{u(s)}\mathrm{\Omega }_f`$. The evolution $`\{tu(t),tI_{\mathrm{}}\}`$ is extended to the whole $`[0,1]`$ using the approximation from the left in time.

We can now use the arguments of Section 4. Following Lemma 4.6, it turns out that for all $`t[0,1]`$

(6.2)
$$(t)(0)+2_0^t_\mathrm{\Omega }u(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau .$$

Moreover, by the Transfer of Jump and the uniqueness argument of Lemma 4.3, we have that $`u^n(t)u(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^N)`$ for all $`t𝒩`$, where $`𝒩`$ is the (at most countable) set of discontinuities of the pointwise limit $`\lambda `$ of $`^{N1}(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$ (which exists up to a further subsequence by Helly’s Theorem). Then we pass to the limit in (6.1) obtaining

$$(t)(0)+2_0^t_\mathrm{\Omega }u(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau ;$$

moreover, following the proof of Theorem 1.1, we have that for all $`t[0,1]`$

$$(t)\underset{n}{lim\; inf}_n(t)\underset{n}{lim\; sup}_n(t)=(0)+2_0^t_\mathrm{\Omega }u(\tau )\dot{g}(\tau )𝑑x𝑑\tau ,$$

and taking into account (6.2) we get the convergence of the total energy at any time. Since $`u^n(t)u(t)`$ strongly in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }^{};^N)`$ for every $`tI_{\mathrm{}}`$, we deduce that $`\lambda =^{N1}(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$ on $`I_{\mathrm{}}`$, so that the convergence of the surface energy holds in $`I_{\mathrm{}}`$. The extension to the continuity times for $`^{N1}(\mathrm{\Gamma }())`$ follows like in the final part of the proof of Theorem 1.1.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank Gianni Dal Maso for having proposed them the problem, and Gianni Dal Maso and Gilles A. Francfort for many helpful and interesting discussions.