Stochastic Creep Damage Growth due to Random Thermal Fluctuations Using Continuum Damage Mechanics

The focus of this study is on the development of a CDM based methodology for estimating the stochastic creep damage growth in structural components subjected to randomly varying thermal loads. Following available frameworks in the literature, the damage growth equations are derived from thermodynamic principles. The fluctuations are first modeled as Gaussian white noise processes. However this leads to physically unrealizable negative damage growth. Alternative non-Gaussian models for the noise, such as the geometric Brownian motion, have been subsequently used to study the growth of creep damage. Numerical results have been presented to illustrate the developments. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.