Modeling and analysis of a phase field system for damage and phase separation processes in solids (Q2339461)

The paper shows the existence of weak solutions for a unified model for phase separation and damage processes, where, in contrast to the existing incomplete damage models or local in time damage evolution, different stress-strain relations of damaged and undamaged material are regarded. It is assumed that the undamaged material is perfectly elastic, the complete damaged material corresponding to a plastic regime, while in the intermediate situation it is elasto-plastic. The proposed non-linear model considers different deformation properties of damaged and undamaged material. The model presents a parabolic diffusion equation of fourth order for the concentration coupled with an elliptic system with material dependent coefficients for the strain tensor and a doubly non-linear differential inclusion for the damage function. First, the model is introduced formally based on a generalized Ginzburg-Landau free energy functional and a damage pseudo-dissipation potential in the sense of Moreau. To incorporate the effect of damage on the elastic response of the material, the effective elastic energy density is chosen so that in the undamaged case the material accumulates the elastic energy density, whereas in the completely damaged case only the lower energy is stored. The governing evolution equations for a system state consist of the elliptic-parabolic system of differential equations and a differential inclusion based on diffusion, balance of forces and damage evolution. The initial and boundary conditions are stated, too. To show the existence of weak solutions for the system, a regularized version for displacement field is considered. In order to state the notion of weak solution for the proposed system and its regularized version, the concept of weak solutions consisting of an energy inequality for the doubly non-linear differential inclusion is used. This concept has been proposed before by the authors for phase separation systems, coupled with rate-dependent damage processes. The main result of the paper is devoted to the proof of an existence theorem for the proposed model. The proof is based on an approximation-passage to the limit procedure. The limit analysis relies on the monotone structure of the system. In particular, the generalized Lebesque convergence theorem, the generalized Korn inequality and Fatou's lemma are used.