A nonlocal treatment technique based on the background cell concept for micro-mechanical damage modeling.

In the present paper, a new nonlocal treatment for micro-mechanical damage modeling is introduced based on the background cell concept. The nonlocal damage variable in the modified GTN damage model is defined as the weighted porosity in analogy to the element-free Galerkin method. The evolution of the damage variable is related to the support domain surrounds the integration point. The efficient computational algorithm is taken from the regular background cell and implemented into the commercial finite element code ABAQUS via the user interface UMAT for both two-dimensional and three-dimensional problems. To verify the nonlocal damage model, extensive computational simulations of 2D and 3D cracked as well as holed specimens are presented and confirmed that the nonlocal damage overcomes mesh sensitivity and is computationally more efficient than other nonlocal treatment methods. The computational simulation of a compact-tension shear specimen reveals that the nonlocal damage model is able to predict mixed-mode crack growth independently of the element orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]