Abstract
A review of Continuum Damage Mechanics (or simply, damage mechanics) with special emphasis on its applicability to the damage and fracture analysis of stuctural elements is presented. Notion of damage mechanics, mathematical description of material damage, fundamental theories of the constitutive and evolution equations of damaging materials are discussed first. Irreversible themodynamical theory to formulate the constitutive and evolution equations is presested as a systematic framework to establish rational models. Finally, applicability and the related numerical problems of the local approach to fracture based on the damage mechanics and the finite element method are discussed, especially in relation to the problems of creep crack growth analysis. The convergence of the solutions and the procedures to suppress the mesh-dependence of the results are also discussed.
