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It has been shown in previous works by the authors that the entire processof failure of a structure can be described within the frame of Continuum DamageMechanics. It consists of crack initiation, growth (including branching) andproliferation throughout a structure, which terminates structure’s lifetime. Thesecharacteristic periods are especially well exposed when time dependent behavior ofstructure’s material (e.g. creep) is taken into account. The results of numericalsimulation of the process depend, however on a number of factors like assumedconstitutive equations for material behavior, values of material constants, andboundary and initial conditions. Due to nonlinear behavior typical for metals in hightemperature applications, the solutions are very sensitive to these parameters. Inparticular, times to reach consecutive stages of failure process can vary essentially.In the present contribution the influence of initial distribution of damage variable,which can result from material original heterogeneity or can be artificially introduced,is studied. It is demonstrated that even small variation in these conditions can influencecrack paths and – consequently – the time to final failure of a structure, which can bevery different from that when zero-value initial conditions are superimposed upondamage scalar parameter.