Issue 19

K. Pham et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 19 (2012) 5-19; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.19.01 13 The size function ( )    D is not necessarily decreasing. In particular 0 ( ) < 0   dD d if and only if the following inequality holds 2 2 0 0 (0)( (0) 2 (0)) > (0)( (0) 2 (0))           S S w S S w (30) The position i x of the center can be chosen arbitrarily in the interval [ ( ), ( )]    D L D . We finally deduce from (25) that, in the localization zone, the damage field is given by the following implicit relation between x and  : ( ) | |= ( , )          i d x x H (31) It is easy to see that the damage field is symmetric with respect to the center of the localization zone, decreasing continuously from ( )   at the center to 0 at the boundary. Remark 2 The size of the localization zone and the profile of the damage field inside depends only on  . Since  is a global quantity, all the localization zones have the same size and the same profile at a given time. The maximal number of localization zones that can exist at a given time depends on the length of the bar: the longer the bar, the greater the maximal number of localization zones. Example 4 In the case of the family of models introduced in Example 2 with 1  q and 1  p the size of the localization zone at 0 =   or 0 are given by 0 0 2 0 0 2 2 ( ) = , = ( )           D D p q p q q p The necessary condition (30) of growing of the localization zone when the stress decreases reads as 2 2 ( ) > ( ) ( 2)     q p q p q p . It is in particular satisfied for = 2 q and 4  p , but it is never satisfied when 1  q and 1 2   p . Figure 3 : Left: The damage profile for a given  and its evolution for different  in the case of the model of Example 2 with = 2 q and = 4 p (the lower  , the higher  ). Right: We check numerically that ( )    D is decreasing. Rupture of the bar When = 0  our previous construction of the damage profile is no more valid. Indeed, the differential system (22)-(23) becomes 2 0 > 0 ( ) = 0 , = = 0            i i and w E in on   Integrating the differential equation over i  and using the boundary conditions leads to ( ) = 0    i w dx  what is impossible by Hypothesis 1. As this is suggested by the fact that the maximal value of the damage tends to 1 when  goes to 0, one has to search a profile such that the damage field takes the value 1 at the center of the zone. Since some