%0 Journal Article %A Gregoire, David %A Rojas-Solano, Laura B. %A Pijaudier-Cabot, Gilles %D 2012 %I Begell House %K damage, nonlocality, strong discontinuity, fracture, crack opening %N 6 %P 567-580 %R 10.1615/IntJMultCompEng.2012003061 %T CONTINUUM TO DISCONTINUUM TRANSITION DURING FAILURE IN NONLOCAL DAMAGE MODELS %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/61fd1b191cf7e96f,3089bea11cd334bd,0aa223026e93b843.html %V 10 %X The purpose of this paper is to discuss how boundary and emerging boundary effects can be folded into a new nonlocal damage formulation based on integral models that provides a consistent transition toward discrete cracking. Several enhancements of the original nonlocal damage model inspired from micromechanics of interacting defects are considered. The goals of the modified nonlocal formulation are threefold: (i) the distribution of damage at failure should be mesh independent; (ii) the model should be able to capture the continuous-discontinuous transition involved in the process of failure due to increasing stresses; (iii) the discontinuous displacements fields resulting from complete failure should be approached as closely as possible. A 1D example illustrates the capabilities of the original and enhanced models. It is found that a combination of increasing/decreasing interactions and nonlocal effects during failure provides the most suitable results. %8 2012-03-11