A Thermo-mechanical gradient enhanced damage method for fracture

In this work, a new thermo-mechanical formulation for the conventional and localizing gradient damage method is proposed. The proposed formulation is based on the generalized micromorphic theory, which accounts for the underlying fracture processes at the micro-level. The thermal and mechanical effects on the fracture response are incorporated in the formulation through three primary variables. These variables are displacement (u), micro-equivalent strain (e) and temperature (theta), which are strongly/weakly coupled. In addition to mechanical loading, steady-state and transient heat transfers are considered in the formulation. Several 1D and 2D numerical examples are solved using the formulation to demonstrate its accuracy and effectiveness in simulating thermo-mechanical fracture. In the numerical examples, different types of thermal and mechanical loads are considered to study various effects on the fracture response of the components. Moreover, a detailed description of the formulation and its numerical implementation is presented for a better understanding.