Multi-scale quasistatic damage evolution for polycrystalline materials

We present a new multi-scale model for linking higher order microstructure descriptions to failure initiation and damage propagation in polycrystalline media. The model gives an accurate local field description for predicting damage nucleation at the length scale of the polycrystalline texture. The new methods allows the recovery of the local damage microstructure inside domains of microtexture and has the capability to capture the conditions for component failure through the propagation of damage across macroscopic length scales. Computational examples for damage evolutions for different load cases demonstrate the potential of this model. In the simulations component level failure is seen in the form of damage appearing along ligaments with length scales comparable to the structural component. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.