A discrete element thermo-mechanical modelling of diffuse damage induced by thermal expansion mismatch of two-phase materials

This phenomenon involves a high amount of discontinuities and can not be tackled easily with the Finite Element Method (FEM). The Discrete Element Method (DEM) naturally accounts for discontinuities and is therefore a good alternative to the continuum approaches. However, the difficulty with DEM is to perform quantitative simulations because the mechanical quantities are not described in terms of the classical continuum theory. This study describes the approach used here to tackle this fundamental difficulty. The results given by the proposed approach are finally compared to experimental observations.