Damage modelling framework for viscoelastic particulate composites via a scale transition approach

The aim of this paper is to pursue, in the wake of the work by Nadot-Martin et al. (2003), a non-classical micromechanical study and scale transition for highly filled particulate composites with viscoelastic matrices. The present extension of a morphology-based approach due to Christoffersen (1983), carried forward to the viscoelastic small strain context by Nadot-Martin et al. (2003), consists here in introducing a supplementary mechanism, namely damage by grain/matrix debonding. Displacement discontinuities (microcracks) on grain/matrix interfaces are first incorporated in a compatible way within geometric and kinematic hypotheses regarding the grains-and-layers assembly of Christoffersen. Then, local field expressions as well as homogenized stresses are established and discussed for a given state of damage (i.e. for a given actual number of open and closed microcracks) and using the hypothesis of no sliding on closed crack lips. A comparison with the results ob tained for the sound viscoelastic composite by Nadot-Martin et al. (2003) allows to quantify the damage influence on local and global levels. At last, the basic formulation of the model obtained by scale transition is completed by the second stage leading to a thermodynamically consistent formulation eliminating some superfluous damaged-induced strain-like variables related to open cracks. This second stage is presented here for a simplified system where delayed (viscoelastic) effects are (tentatively) neglected. It appears as a preliminary and crucial step for further generalization in viscoelasticity.