The third critical component of the adaptive cohesive element scheme
is the criterion to be used to introduce the cohesive elements in the
finite element mesh. In this study, two approaches have been
considered: the first one relies on defining a bounding box within
which all edges are made cohesive and allow this box to grow as
necessary, while the second one consists in selecting the cohesive
edges based on the local stress level. These two approaches are
successively discussed hereafter.