A damage model for transversely isotropic materials

Overview & Synopsis

In a nuclear disposal project, the damage of the hosting rock is a capital issue that should be studied and understood. This problem is even more complex when the studied rock is anisotropic. In the present paper, a damage model that takes into account both initial and induced anisotropy is introduced using equivalence relations between the real material and a fictitious isotropic one on which we can take all the advantages of the well established isotropic theory. Numerical simulations using a Finite Element Method (FEM) code shows an agreement between the theoretical predictions and the experimental data of Brazilian tests with different orientation angles.