Rate-dependent transition from tensile damage to discrete fracture in dynamic brittle failure

Based on the work for a combined damage/plasticity model of geologic materials and the bifurcation analysis of material failure, an analytical framework is established to study the rate-dependent transition from continuum damage to discrete fracture in dynamic brittle failure. Because of the simple formulation, a vectorized constitutive model solver can be designed for large-scale computer simulation. A continuum tangent stiffness tenser is invoked for the tensile damage evolution such that the bifurcation analysis can be performed to identify the initiation and orientation of tensile failure. It is shown that the orientation of tensile failure is rate-independent although the limit state is rate-dependent for the rate-dependent tensile damage model. Sample problems are considered to demonstrate the features of the proposed approach. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.