Complex Damage Variables in Continuum Damage Mechanics

摘要

The concept of complex damage variables is introduced in this work. These damage variables have both real and imaginary parts. They are introduced not to use them in practical applications but to try to derive a direct relationship between the damage due to cross-sectional area reduction and the damage due to elastic stiffness degradation. In addition this concept can provide an insight in addressing the concept of healing that the authors have extensively published as well as the concept of undamageable materials. Toward this goal some success is achieved in the sense that some complicated relationships between the two damage processes are formulated. These relationships and the complex variable approach are novel ideas in Continuum Damage Mechanics. Throughout the formulation the hypothesis of strain equivalence is used in order to simplify the mathematical equations. This work can be extended and generalized by substituting the hypothesis of energy equivalence but this will complicate the equations unnecessarily. The presented formulation is scalar and applies to the one-dimensional case only.