1. Introduction

This cohesive zone model accounts for the phenomena of crack initiation, propagation (in a given direction) and final rupture. The mixed interface element is introduced to discretize the crack path whose degrees of freedom are the displacement of the two lips of the crack, as well as the density of the cohesive forces. The construction of the finite element model and the integration of the constitutive law CZM_TAC_MIX are detailed. This document is largely inspired by the Lorentz article 5, the interested reader can refer to it for more details.