Damage and fracture: Classical continuum theories

This paper reports the research results on the continuum theory of damage which goes back to the works of Kachanov, Gurson, and Rabotnov. In these models, internal variables that generally have different mathematical structure are explicitly introduced to constitutive relations. The internal variables describe a non-oriented (using scalar damage parameters) or oriented (using different-order tensors) damage distribution in the material. Then, a fracture criterion is introduced based on mechanical or thermodynamic considerations. Models of this type are still most frequently used in the structural analysis of strength of some materials (e.g., composites). Since damage nucleation and growth are closely related to strain localization, consideration is given to formulations and methods for analyzing the stability of inelastic deformation processes. Much attention is given to the effect of the finite element mesh on simulation results, to solution algorithms for such problems, and to the possibilities of using non-local constitutive models. The studies that use gradient models are also included, because damage formation is associated with sharp spatial variations of kinematic and/or dynamic characteristics which must be described by non-classical constitutive relations (gradient, non-local, micromorphic continuum).