Continuous-Discontinuous Modelling of Failure

This is a Ph.D. dissertation. The foundations of a safe structural design lie on the understanding of failure processes of engineering materials and in their correct representation. In a numerical context, failure representation in engineering materials can be pursued either in a continuous or in a discontinuous setting. Both approaches can model certain failure modes, but in some cases do not reflect the physical processes behind failure properly. To some extent, continuous failure representation can be improved by enriching the standard kinematics with displacement discontinuities, which can be thought of as a natural consequence of material failure process. In this work, a continuous-discontinuous analysis depends largely on the underlying continuous model. Analyses performed with elastic and strain-hardening media gave satisfactory results; conversely, when strain-softening media were considered, the performance of the approach was related to the nature of the regularization employed. Several applications illustrate the improved flexibility of a continuous-discontinuous approach to failure when compared to a continuous approach alone.Simone, A. is the author of 'Continuous-Discontinuous Modelling of Failure', published 2003 under ISBN 9789040724343 and ISBN 9040724342.