Damage Thermodynamics of Quasibrittle Materials

TL;DR

This paper develops a thermodynamic framework to describe microfracture growth in quasibrittle materials, explaining stability at small depths and failure mechanisms at larger depths through free energy minimization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel thermodynamic model incorporating microcrack parameters, providing insights into stability and failure in quasibrittle solids.

Findings

High stability of microcrack growth at small depths

Mechanism of stability loss at large depths

Estimated relationships between model parameters

Abstract

The description of the early stage of microfracture growth in a quasibrittle solid with thermodynamic positions is considered. From the most general thermodynamic performances the "principle" of minimization of free energy is received. The account high (down to thirds) degrees in expansion of free energy concerning parameters of a mechanical field and average microcrack energy has allowed to write down the state equation for solids with microcracks, to find equilibrium and nonequilibrium values of their average energy. From positions of a developed formalism the reason of high stability of work developments on small depths and mechanism of loss of their stability on the large depths is explained. From the fact of presence of qualitatively various behaviour of a material on the large depths the additional estimated connection between parameters of the theory is established.