On a Computational Smeared Damage Approach to the Analysis of Strength of Quasi-Brittle Materials

Abstract

Computational analysis of strength of quasi-brittle materials, crucial for the durability of building structures and industrial components, needs typically a smeared damage approach, referring to the Eringen theory of nonlocal elasticity. Unfortunately its ad hoc constitutive relations cannot avoid potential divergence of sequences of approximate solutions, exploiting some extended finite element techniques, as well as questionable or missing existence results for corresponding boundary value problems. Introducing a simple static partially linearized model problem of such type, this article demonstrates some relevant remedies and their limitations, with numerous references to desirable generalizations