Localization analysis of nonlocal model based on crack interactions

The conventional nonlocal model, often used as a localization limiter for continuum-based constitutive laws with strain-softening, has been based on an isotropic averaging function. It has recently been shown that this type of nonlocal averaging leads to a model that cannot satisfactorily reproduce experimental results for very different test geometries without modifying the value of the characteristic length depending on geometry. A micromechanically based enrichment of the nonlocal operator by a term taking into account the directional dependence of crack interactions can be expected to improve the performance of the nonlocal model. The aim of this paper is to examine this new model in the context of a simple localization problem reducible to a one-dimensional description. Strain localization in an infinite layer under plane stress is studied using both the old and the new nonlocal formulations. The importance of a renormalization of the averaging function in the proximity of a boundary is demonstrated and the differences between the localization sensitivity of the old and new model are pointed out. In addition to the detection of bifurcations from an initially uniform state, the stable branch of the load-displacement diagram is followed using an incremental procedure.