Phenomenological Mechanochemistry of Damage in Electromagnetic Fields

Basic principles of Phenomenological Mechanochemistry of Damage (PMD) have been formulated in Grinfeld and Wright [1]. To some extent, it is a natural extension of the traditional damage theory, presented by Kachanov [2]. Contrary to Kachanov's approach, the PMD theory includes, in addition to the bulk elastic energy, the energy associated with braking/recovery of chemical bonds. Therefore, in addition to the elasticity equations it includes the equation, describing evolution/dynamics of chemical bonds. Although ``chemical bonds'' is a nano-scale concept, we treat the bonds using phenomenological approach. The additional equation of damage evolution is of the rate type, thus, making the whole model rate-dependent (even in quasi-static approach.) In the paper, we review some earlier results and generalized them by taking into account electromagnetic effects. \begin{enumerate} \item Grinfeld, MA., Wright, TW. Thermodynamics of solids: recent progress with applications to brittle fracture and nanotechnology. Paper presented at 23rd U.S. Army Science Conference; 2002; Orlando (FL). \item Kachanov, LM. Introduction to continuum damage mechanics. Dordrecht: (Netherlands): Martinus Nijhoff Publishers;1986. \end{enumerate}