A two-scale damage model with material length

The Note presents the formulation of a class of two-scale damage models involving a micro-structural length. A homogenization method based on asymptotic developments is employed to deduce the macroscopic damage equations. The damage model completely results from energy-based micro-crack propagation laws, without supplementary phenomenological assumptions.We show that the resulting two-scale model has the property of capturing micro-structural lengths. When damage evolves, the micro-structural length is given by the ratio of the surface density of energy dissipated during the micro-crack growth and the macroscopic damage energy release rate per unit volume of the material.The use of fracture criteria based on resistance curves or power laws for sub-critical growth of micro-cracks leads to quasi-brittle and, respectively, time-dependent damage models. To cite this article: C. Dascalu, C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).