Kinetic Laws of Damage Evolution

Abstract

The physical nature of damage has been defined in the first chapter. The definition of the damage variable as the effective surface density of microcracks in a Representative Volume Element associated with the effective stress concept and the principle of equivalence has given rise to methods of damage measurement through changes in elasticity or plasticity. These concepts have been generalized to the threedimensional case in the second chapter by means of two potentials. Accordingly, state coupling occurs between elastic strain and damage, and kinetic coupling takes place between plastic strain and damage, which allowing us to calculate strains and damage up to failure if the constitutive equations for the damage are known.