Non-local modeling of thermal shock damage in refractory materials

A non-local damage framework has been coupled with heat transport to model transient thermo-mechanical damage (in particular thermal shock) in refractory materials. The non-locality, to be dealt with to obtain an adequate problem formulation, is introduced by terms accounting for micro-structural strain gradients induced by transient temperature gradients. The parameters figuring in the evolution law for elasticity-based damage are temperature dependent. Damage due to isotropic thermal expansion has been accounted for by proposing a new evolution law. A single variable for the total damage is obtained by combining both damage mechanisms. The influence of non-locality and transient temperature gradients within non-locality is investigated in numerical examples. The phenomenological relevance of the framework is verified by modeling of experiments, which simulate thermal shock under process conditions.