Search "tensile crack propagation in Abaqus" and review several sites. Observe names of people involved with this type of research. Connect with them on social media (ResearchGate, LinkedIn vk.com, etc.): https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=tensile+crack+propagation+in+Abaqus
I understood that you want to trace the crack initiation and propagation in a tension test. You need to apply the load incrementally to the specimen to be tested, and use a stress or strain criteria for the cracks initiation. At each increment you have to calculate the unbalanced forces resulting from the changing stress state and the nonlinear solution, reapply these unbalanced forces and iterate until you get a convergence. You can use either:
i. stress convergence criteria,
ii. strain convergence criteria,
iii. force convergence criteria, or
iv. displacement convergence criteria.
This is to be continued until the specimen fail. A failure criteria also has to be set in the program, like a displacement, strain, stress, or you may get a singular stiffness matrix leading to unstable solution