Issue 19

K. Pham et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 19 (2012) 5-19; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.19.01 10 The non local term has no influence on the homogeneous solution which is solution both for the gradient and the local damage models. Let us now examine the issue of the uniqueness of the response. In the case of the local damage model, it is well known that the evolution problem admits an infinite number of solution. Does the gradient term force the uniqueness? The answer to this fundamental question essentially depends on the ratio /  L of the internal length with the bar length, as it is proved in [1] in the case = 2 p , = 0 q of Example 2. Specifically it was shown that the homogeneous solution is the unique solution of the evolution problem when 0 0     L E , i.e. when the bar is small enough, while there exists an infinite number of solutions otherwise. However, when the bar is long enough, although the number of solutions is infinite, the fundamental difference between the local and the gradient models is that the length of the damaged zone is bounded from below for the gradient model while it can be chosen arbitrarily small for the local model. The main goal of the next section is to extend these results for a large class of gradient models and to study the properties of non homogeneous solutions. Let us remark that any solution of the evolution problem contains the same elastic phase, i.e. = 0  t as long as 0   t . Therefore, localizations can appear only when 0 >  t . Example 3 For the family of models of Example 1, the homogeneous response is given by 0 0 0 2 < = 0 < = = = 1                                                   c c c c p q p q p q c c c c c E if if E E and if if Since > > 0 q p , the stress is a decreasing function of the strain in the damaging phase what corresponds to a property of softening. For a given > 0 p , the exponent of the power law goes from  to 1  when q goes from p to  . The area under the curve, i.e. the energy dissipated during the full process of homogeneous damage, is finite what corresponds to a strongly brittle behavior, see [12]. In the limit case where = p q , the damage evolves while the strain remains constant and equal to  c . That corresponds to a perfectly brittle behavior, see Fig. 1. In the limit case where = 0 p or =  q , the stress-strain curve is an arc of hyperbola in its softening part. The area under the curve, i.e. the energy dissipated during the full process of homogeneous damage, is infinite. This change of the boundedness of the dissipated energy marks the transition between a strongly brittle and a weakly brittle behavior, see [12]. Figure 1 : Left: The stress-strain response (black curve) associated with the homogeneous evolution in the case of the models of Example 1 with > > 0 q p . The limit cases of perfectly brittle material ( = p q ) and weakly brittle material ( = 0 p ) are in gray. Right: Graphical interpretation of the dissipated energy at the end of a homogeneous damage process. N ON HOMOGENEOUS SOLUTIONS OF THE DAMAGE PROBLEM The method of construction of non homogeneous solutions et us consider one solution of the evolution problem. Setting L