Enriched Damage Models for Continuum Failure Analyses

Continuum damage mechanics is a framework for describing the variations of the elastic properties of a material due to microstructural degradations. In this contribution two issues are reviewed: the first one deals with standard damage models, damage induced anisotropy and relations with other existing approaches such as smeared crack models. The second issue is concerned with strain localisation due to softening, which is inherent to continuum damage modelling of quasi-brittle materials. Nonlocal approaches to damage are reviewed. We conclude with possible extensions of these enriched damage models to the case of damage induced anisotropy.