Description of the elastic deformation and degradation of elastic properties of dispersedly failing isotropic materials

Abstract

A model is put forward for describing the elastic deformation of a quasi-homogeneous isotropic material capable of accumulating scattered microdamages during loading, which eventually leads to its total failure. The degree of damage of the material at a point is characterized by a centrosymmetric scalar function on the unit sphere, named the damage function, whose values depend on a dimensionless equivalent stress. This function is approximated by a fourth-rank tensor, which is used to construct a constitutive relation between stresses and strains in a differential form. By way of example, the elastic deformation of concrete and the degradation of its linearly elastic properties are described, and the basic three-dimensional sections of the corresponding strength surface are constructed.