Hello,

I seek help from the forum regarding the following. Because I am very new to mechanics.

I have a continuum damage mechanics model with me. I have set up a problem of a typical three point bending test on a notched beam. The notch in the center of the specimen and extends from the bottom face up to the middle of the thickness. It is a plane stress problem. Now I want to simulate load-displacement curve obtained from the experiment (s).

Hello all,

I would like to seek help on a topic on which I am slightly ignorant.

I do not understand the concept of non local damage and the internal length of the non local continuum as described by the well quoted paper of Pijaudier-Cabot and Bazant (1987) in continuum damage mechanics.  So may I please ask the experts in this forum to please explain to me using some simple analogy.

Secondly, they seem to use the word internal length "lc" and a function "psi(x-s) where x is a point in a domain.  Does this formula apply for 1D formulation only ??  What exactly is the internal length?

I greatly appreciate your valuable time.

Regards,

Ram