Gradient-based adaptive discontinuity layout optimization for the prediction of strength properties in matrix–inclusion materials

The prediction of strength properties of engineering materials, which in general are time dependent due to chemical and deterioration processes, plays an important role during manufacturing and construction as well as with regard to durability aspects of materials and structures. On the one hand, the speed of production processes and the quality of products may be significantly increased by improved material performance at early ages. On the other hand, the life time of materials and structures can be enlarged and means of repair and maintenance can be optimized.For determination of strength properties of materials, an extension of the discontinuity layout optimization (DLO) towards an iterative adaptation of the underlying mode of discretization (nodes and discontinuities) is proposed in this paper. This technique yields an improved representation of the underlying failure mechanism (thus, avoiding interlocking in consequence of the chosen discontinuity layout) at reduced computational costs. The performance of the proposed DLO method is assessed by the re-analysis of problems with available analytical solution and finally applied to upscaling of strength properties considering, in a first step, two-phase material systems representing matrix–inclusion morphologies.