NONLOCAL MODEL-BASED ON CRACK INTERACTIONS - A LOCALIZATION STUDY

A micromechanically based enrichment of the nonlocal operator by a ter m taking into account the directional dependence of crack interactions (Bazant, 1992) can be expected to improve the performance of the nonl ocal model. The aim of this paper is to examine this new model in the context of a simple localization problem reducible to a one-dimensiona l description. Strain localization in an infinite layer under plain st ress is studied using both the old and the new nonlocal formulations. The importance of renormalization of the averaging function in the pro ximity of a boundary is demonstrated and the differences between the l ocalization sensitivity of the old and new model are pointed out.