A regularization approach for damage models based on a displacement gradient

Common material models that take into account softening effects due to damage encounter the problem of ill‐posed boundary value problems if no regularization is applied. This condition leads to a non‐unique solution for the resulting algebraic system and a strong mesh dependence of the numerical results. A possible solution approach to prevent this problem is to apply regularization techniques that take into account the non‐local behavior of the damage [1]. For this purpose a field function is used to couple the local damage parameter to a non‐local level, in which differences between the local and non‐local parameter as well as the gradient of the non‐local parameter can be penalized. In contrast, we present a novel approach to regularization in which no field function is needed [2]. Hereto, the regularization is carried out by means of the divergence of the displacements and no additional quantity is necessary since the displacements are already defined on a non‐local level. The idea is that with an increasing value of the damage the element's volume will increase as well. This is a result of the softening due to the occurring damage. The increasing volume can be measured by the divergence of the displacements which can be penalized by an additional energy part. The lack of any field function and the regularization by the use of the divergence of the displacements entails several numerical advantages: the computational effort is considerably reduced and the convergence behavior is improved as well. Naturally, the numerical results are mesh independent due to the regularization. (© 2015 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)