Free Energy of Damaged Solids
This paper examines the free energy potentials of damaged solids for the construction of damage mechanics constitutive models. The physical meaning of free energy in solid mechanics is analyzed in contrast with that in traditional fields of thermodynamics; 1D stress-strain curves are used to show the relationships between various thermodynamic state functions in isothermal loading processes; and the role of plastic free energy in damage evolution is discussed both macroscopically and microscopically. It is concluded that plastic free energy, which is a macroscopic representation of some additional microscopic elastic energy, cannot do work during unloading but get released when damage takes place, constituting part of the driving force for damage evolution.