Damage localization induced by strain softening can be predicted by the dir
ect minimization of a global energy function [Baker G, Hunt GW. In: Bazant
ZP, et al., editors. Damage of Quasi-brittle Structures. London: E and FN S
pon, 1994. p. 387-94; Hunt GW, Baker G. J Mech Phys Solids 1995;43(7):1127-
50]. This article concerns the computational strategy for implementing this
principle for softening materials such as concrete. Instead of using heuri
stic global optimization techniques, our strategies are a hybrid of local o
ptimization methods with a path-finding approach to ensure a global optimum
. With admissible nodal displacements being independent variables, it is ea
sy to deal with the geometric (mesh) constraint conditions. The direct sear
ch optimization methods recover the localized solutions for a range of soft
ening lattice models which are representative of the quasi-brittle structur
es. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.