The interphase elasto-plastic damaging model

Heterogeneous materials present a mechanical response strongly dependent on the static and kinematic phenomena occurring in the constituents and at their joints. In order to analyze this kind of materials it is a common practice to distinguish a macroscopic length scale of interest from a mesoscopic one, where the mesoscopic length scale is of the order of the typical dimensions of the constituents. At the mesoscopic level the interaction between the units is simulated by mean of apposite mechanical devices. Among these devices is popular the zero thickness interface model where contact tractions and displacement discontinuities are the primary static and kinematic variables respectively. H…