Modeling of concrete behavior under high strain rates with inertially retarded damage

The paper proposes a novel approach to model the influence of high strain rates on the behavior of quasi-brittle materials like concrete. It is based on gradient continuum damage, where the gradient part is extended with an inertia of damage. This causes a retardation of damage due to the fact that micro-cracks cannot spread out arbitrarily fast. The application is demonstrated with uniaxial tensile wave propagation and for a plane stress case. Increasing strain rates lead to an expansion of the linear stress–strain behavior with stresses exceeding the quasistatic material strength.