  Lattice networks with dissipative interactions are often employed to analyze
materials with discrete micro- or meso-structures, or for a description of
heterogeneous materials which can be modelled discretely. They are, however,
computationally prohibitive for engineering-scale applications. The
(variational) QuasiContinuum (QC) method is a concurrent multiscale approach
that reduces their computational cost by fully resolving the (dissipative)
lattice network in small regions of interest while coarsening elsewhere. When
applied to damageable lattices, moving crack tips can be captured by adaptive
mesh refinement schemes, whereas fully-resolved trails in crack wakes can be
removed by mesh coarsening. In order to address crack propagation efficiently
and accurately, we develop in this contribution the necessary generalizations
of the variational QC methodology. First, a suitable definition of crack paths
in discrete systems is introduced, which allows for their geometrical
representation in terms of the signed distance function. Second, special
function enrichments based on the partition of unity concept are adopted, in
order to capture kinematics in the wakes of crack tips. Third, a summation rule
that reflects the adopted enrichment functions with sufficient degree of
accuracy is developed. Finally, as our standpoint is variational, we discuss
implications of the mesh refinement and coarsening from an energy-consistency
point of view. All theoretical considerations are demonstrated using two
numerical examples for which the resulting reaction forces, energy evolutions,
and crack paths are compared to those of the direct numerical simulations.
