Isotropic brittle damage and unilateral effect

Abstract

This Note investigates the isotropic version of a general macroscopic model for brittle damage accounting for unilateral effects proposed by Welemane and Cormery (H. Welemane, F. Cormery, An alternative 3D model for damage induced anisotropy and unilateral effect in microcracked materials, J. Phys. IV 105 (2003) 329 13336). Built within a rigorous thermodynamic framework, the model uses a single scalar damage variable and accounts for the contribution of each set of parallel microcracks whether they are opened or closed. The consideration of unilateral effects allows to represent an anisotropic elastic behaviour induced by the closure of some microcracks and also the dissymmetric response in tension and compression which characterizes brittle materials.