Multiscale damage simulation

Numerous materials show a softening behaviour at dynamic loading. The decrease of stress is caused by the evolution in the microscale in terms of areas where the local stiffness is reduced, e.g. due to micro-void growth. For a numerical treatment of this material behaviour, phenomenological damage approaches are used in daily engineering practice. For a better understanding of the micromechanical process of such phenomenological models, multiscale methods are becoming increasingly important. The physical quantities that are responsible for the microstructural evolution associated with the damage process are transferred into the numerical model. In this context, the method of configurational forces will be used to describe the geometrical changes of damaged areas. With the help of homogenization, macroand microscale will be coupled. In consequence, each Gaussian point of the macroscale is modelled by an own microstructure (RVE), where the microscale evolves during the loading process according to observable damage phenomena. Hereby, we present the general case of hyperelastic materials at finite strains.