Damage Initiation Laws

Introduction

Damage initiation laws are used in softening materials to initiate the damage process. They consist of a failure envelope in stress space. Once the current stresses reaches the envelop, the damage process begins. The normal to the failure envelop defines the normal to the plane of damage that is initiated. After initiation, damage propagates, but the damage law is no longer used.

Define a Damage Initiation Laws

You create traction law materials using a Material command block. Within that block all traction properties are set using property commands. Refer to each traction law type to learn about its possible properties.

Traction Law Materials

This table lists the available traction law materials. Click each one for more details and information on their properties.

Name	ID	Description
TriangularTraction	12	A triangular traction law
LinearTraction	13	A linear elastic traction law (no failure)
CubicTraction	14	A cubic traction law
TrilinearTraction	20	A trilinear traction law
CoupledTraction	23	A coupled triangular traction law
PressureTraction	26	A constant normal stress traction law (no failure)

It is relatively easy to write code for new traction laws, if needed.