On the thermodynamic framework of generalized coupled thermoelastic-viscoplastic-damage modeling (Q1338732)

The now standard thermomechanical approach using a convex energy density and a complementary dissipation potential with internal variables of state is used to model the mechanical response of materials presenting coupled thermoelastic-viscoplastic damage. This has become somewhat routine work, and the paper appears more like a variation on a now known theme. Various approximations corresponding to more or less decoupling between effects are discussed. The main argument is to recover or formulate the existing theories in the two-potential form originally introduced, after all, by Lord Rayleigh for simple processes one century ago and by H. Ziegler for elastic-plastic phenomena in the 1960s -- two authors who are not quoted in spite of the apparent wealth of citations.