Microcracked bodies with random properties: a preliminary investigation on localization phenomena

In a previous paper [Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng. 2001;190:5657–5677], it has been shown that in microcracked bodies strain localization phenomena appear even if the constitutive relations are linear and the microcracks are in elastic phase and do not grow. In this paper the constitutive properties of the body are assumed random, although uniform over the body. An example case in two dimensions is presented: its properties are assumed to be the mean values or fractiles of the probability distributions of the relevant coefficients, resulting from assumed distributions of the parent quantities. In all cases, strain localization is evident; however, the influence of the random variations, at least under the set hypotheses, appears small.