Stress state influence on nonlocal interactions in damage modelling

Abstract

This paper presents a modification of an integral nonlocal damage model used to describe concrete behaviour. It aims at providing a better treatment of areas close to a boundary and a fracture process zone where the interactions between points should vanish. Modifications on the original integral nonlocal model are introduced by considering the stress state of points in the weight function used to compute the nonlocal variables. Computations show that local information such as strain or damage profiles are significantly different, leading to a narrower region where damage equal to 1 in the case of the modified nonlocal model. It allows to better approach a discontinuity of the displacement field upon failure and thus, improves the estimation of the crack opening that has been developed in post-processing for this type of calculation.