LS-DYNA Theory Manual Material Models

ª § ­° ΔL ½° · º
F n +1
= F ⋅ 1 + C1 ⋅ ΔL + C 2 ⋅ sgn ( ΔL ) ln max ®1.,
«   ¨ ¾ ¸ » + DΔL + g ( ΔL ) h ( ΔL )
« ¨ ¸
¿° ¹ »¼
DLE
¬ © ¯°

where C1 , C 2 are damping coefficients, DLE is a factor to scale time units.

Unless the origin of the curve starts at (0,0), the negative part of the curve is used when
the spring force is negative where the negative of the plastic displacement is used to interpolate,
Fy . The positive part of the curve is used whenever the force is positive. In these equations, Δ L
is the change in length

ΔL = current length − initial length

Material Model 96: Brittle Damage Model

A full description of the tensile and shear damage parts of this material model is given in
Govindjee, Kay and Simo [1994,1995]. It is an anisotropic brittle damage model designed
primarily for concrete, though it can be applied to a wide variety of brittle materials. It admits
progressive degradation of tensile and shear strengths across smeared cracks that are initiated
under tensile loadings. Compressive failure is governed by a simplistic J2 flow correction that
can be disabled if not desired. Damage is handled by treating the rank 4 elastic stiffness tensor as
an evolving internal variable for the material. Softening induced mesh dependencies are handled
by a characteristic length method [Oliver 1989].

Description of properties:

1. E is the Young's modulus of the undamaged material also known as the virgin modulus.

2. υ is the Poisson's ratio of the undamaged material also known as the virgin Poisson's
ratio.

3. f n is the initial principal tensile strength (stress) of the material. Once this stress has
been reached at a point in the body a smeared crack is initiated there with a normal that is
co-linear with the 1st principal direction. Once initiated, the crack is fixed at that
location, though it will convect with the motion of the body. As the loading progresses
the allowed tensile traction normal to the crack plane is progressively degraded to a small
machine dependent constant.

The degradation is implemented by reducing the material's modulus normal to the

smeared crack plane according to a maximum dissipation law that incorporates
exponential softening. The restriction on the normal tractions is given by

φt = ( n ⊗ n ) : σ − f n + (1 − ε ) f n (1 − exp [ − Hα ]) ≤ 0

where n is the smeared crack normal, ε is the small constant, H is the softening
modulus, and α is an internal variable. H is set automatically by the program; see gc

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below. α measures the crack field intensity and is output in the equivalent plastic strain
field, ε p , in a normalized fashion.

The evolution of alpha is governed by a maximum dissipation argument. When the

normalized value reaches unity it means that the material's strength has been reduced to
2% of its original value in the normal and parallel directions to the smeared crack. Note
that for plotting purposes, it is never output greater than 5.

4. f s is the initial shear traction that may be transmitted across a smeared crack plane. The
shear traction is limited to be less than or equal to f s (1 − β ) (1 − exp [ − H α ]) , through the
use of two orthogonal shear damage surfaces. Note that the shear degradation is coupled
to the tensile degradation through the internal variable alpha which measures the intensity
of the crack field. β is the shear retention factor defined below. The shear degradation is
taken care of by reducing the material's shear stiffness parallel to the smeared crack
plane.

5. gc is the fracture toughness of the material. It should be entered as fracture energy per
unit area crack advance. Once entered the softening modulus is automatically calculated
based on element and crack geometries.

6. β is the shear retention factor. As the damage progresses the shear tractions allowed
across the smeared crack plane asymptote to the product β f s .

7. η represents the viscosity of the material. Viscous behavior is implemented as a simple

Perzyna regularization method. This allows for the inclusion of first order rate effects.
The use of some viscosity is recommend as it serves as regularizing parameter that
increases the stability of calculations.

8. σ y is a uniaxial compressive yield stress. A check on compressive stresses is made using

the J 2 yield function s : s − 23 σ y ≤ 0 , where s is the stress deviator. If violated, a J 2
return mapping correction is executed. This check is executed when (1) no damage has
taken place at an integration point yet, (2) when damage has taken place at a point but
the crack is currently closed, and (3) during active damage after the damage integration
(ie. as an operator split). Note that if the crack is open, the plasticity correction is done in
the plane-stress subspace of the crack plane.

Remark: A variety of experimental data has been replicated using this model from quasi-static to
explosive situations. Reasonable properties for a standard grade concrete would be E=3.15x10^6
psi, f n =450 psi, f s =2100 psi, ν = 0.2, gc = 0.8 lbs/in, β =0.03, η = 0.0 psi-sec, σ y = 4200
psi. For stability, values of η between 104 to 106 psi/sec are recommended. Our limited
experience thus far has shown that many problems require nonzero values of η to run to avoid
error terminations. Various other internal variables such as crack orientations and degraded
stiffness tensors are internally calculated but currently not available for output.

19.134