Investigation of an elastoplastic material model coupled to nonlocal damage in an implicit-gradient framework

In this work, an elastoplastic material model coupled to nonlocal damage is discussed which is based on an implicit gradient-enhanced approach. Combined nonlinear isotropic and kinematic hardening as well as continuum damage of Lemaitre-type are considered. The model is a direct nonlocal extension of a corresponding local model which was presented earlier (see e. g. [1], [2], [3]). Conclusions drawn from a numerical benchmark test performed in this study demonstrate that the nonlocal damage model is suitable to provide mesh-independent solutions in finite element simulations. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)