Geomechanics Module Updates
For users of the Geomechanics Module, COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.4 brings functionality for modeling damage in brittle materials, which you can read about in more detail below.
Damage in Brittle Materials
For brittle materials, damage caused by cracking is an important failure mechanism. The new Damage subnode under the Linear Elastic Material node makes it possible to incorporate continuum-based damage models, where the material softens as an effect of the severity of the loading. There are several effective scalar damage models based on equivalent strain measures, including user-defined expressions, as well as the Mazars model for concrete. You can select different rules for the damage evolution. Softening material models are numerically challenging due to strong localization of the damage. For this reason, regularization methods that smooth the damage over a finite region are often used. Two such methods are available: crack band and implicit gradient.
You can find this feature utilized in the following models:
- concrete_beam
- damage_test_bar (New)
- notched_beam_damage (New)
Damage predicted by the Mazars model in a reinforced concrete beam subjected to bending.
New Tutorial Models
COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.4 brings new tutorial models.
Brittle Damage in Uniaxial Tension
Comparison of uniaxial force-strain relation for different damage models.
Search in the Application Library:
damage_test_bar
Cracking of a Notched Beam
Damage during the failure of a notched beam, computed using the crack band method.
Search in the Application Library:
notched_beam_damage
Slope Stability in a Dam Embankment
Displacement just prior to collapse of dam embankment.
Search in the Application Library:
slope_stability
Wetting and Drying Paths for Partially Saturated Soil with the Extended Barcelona Basic Soil Model
Load path dependence during a wetting experiment of the soil.
Search in the Application Library:
wetting_and_drying_of_unsaturated_soil