Continuous damage mechanics — A tool to describe phenomena before crack initiation

The classical structural life predictions are based on stabilized stress-strain analysis and some parametric relations with the number of cycles to failure. During the last ten years a different approach, initiated by the works of Kachanov and Rabotnov for creep rupture, has been developed by different laboratories. This continuous Damage Mechanics, treating the damaged material as a macroscopically homogeneous one, leads to the possibility of globally modelling the nucleation and the propagation of microdefects including their effect on the stress-strain behaviour. This paper presents the general theory and several applications to a turbine blade refractory alloy. It includes the description of sequence effects and creep-fatigue interaction. The generalization for three-dimensional conditions, where anisotropic damage effects are possible, is discussed and some new proposals are given for the determination of simple anisotropic damage equations.