Brittle Damage in Initially Anisotropic Materials: A Model Accounting for the Induced Anisotropy and Unilateral Effects

Abstract

A new micromechanical modelling approach for brittle damage in initially orthotropic materials is presented. The proposed strain-based energy formulation allows to derive a fully anisotropic multilinear model for microcracked materials with arbitrary oriented defects. The thermodynamics framework provides a standard procedure for the damage evolution law. The new model explicitly accounts for the interaction between primary and induced anisotropies. Moreover, the very challenging issue of opening-closure effects (unilateral behavior) is addressed in this framework.