Continuum damage modelling and some computational issues

ABSTRACT

Continuum damage mechanics is a framework for describing the variations of the elastic properties of a material due to microstructural degradations. This paper presents the application of this theory to the modelling of concrete. Several constitutive relations are devised, including incremental, explicit, and non local damage models. A general framework for damage induced anisotropy is also presented. In the second part of this contribution, computational issues in damage mechanics related to iterative schemes and solution control in non linear computations are considered. The paper concludes with an example of 3D finite element computation of a reinforced concrete beam, as part of a benchmark initiated by Electricité de France.

KEYWORDS:

• Damage
• failure analysis
• concrete
• non linear finite element computations