  Environmentally assisted cracking phenomena are widespread across the
transport, defence, energy and construction sectors. However, predicting
environmentally assisted fractures is a highly cross-disciplinary endeavour
that requires resolving the multiple material-environment interactions taking
place. In this manuscript, an overview is given of recent breakthroughs in the
modelling of environmentally assisted cracking. The focus is on the
opportunities created by two recent developments: phase field and multi-physics
modelling. The possibilities enabled by the confluence of phase field methods
and electro-chemo-mechanics modelling are discussed in the context of three
environmental assisted cracking phenomena of particular engineering interest:
hydrogen embrittlement, localised corrosion and corrosion fatigue. Mechanical
processes such as deformation and fracture can be coupled with chemical
phenomena like local reactions, ionic transport and hydrogen uptake and
diffusion. Moreover, these can be combined with the prediction of an evolving
interface, such as a growing pit or a crack, as dictated by a phase field
variable that evolves based on thermodynamics and local kinetics. Suitable for
both microstructural and continuum length scales, this new generation of
simulation-based, multi-physics phase field models can open new modelling
horizons and enable Virtual Testing in harmful environments.
