From damage to delamination via evolutionary Gamma-convergence in a rate-independent quasibrittle regime

Abstract

We analyze via Evolutionary Gamma-convergence a stratified composite structure consisting of a thin adhesive layer with vanishing thickness and undergoing rate-independent damage, as well as two adjacent elastic adherents. As the width of the intermediate layer tends to zero, we prevent complete degradation of the material by assuming that the damage variable scales minimally like the thickness of the adhesive layer. As a result, we identify a limiting model that combines both a brittle constraint and an adhesive-type energy contribution featuring the jump of the admissible displacements.