Nonlocal strain-softening model of quasi-brittle materials using boundary element method (Q1614515)

The strain-softening localization problem is studied by boundary element method. A placticity model with yield limit degradation is implemented in a boundary element program to investigate the fracture behavior of quasi-brittle materials. A special integration algorithm is formulated and applied to deal with singular integrations encountered in the volume integrals over internal cells where strain-softening occurs. Additionally, a nonlocal strain-softening localization limiter is incorporated into the boundary element analysis to avoid the localization problem and to attain realistic results.