Elastic microcracked bodies with random properties

The stochastic properties of a ‘dense’ distribution of microcracks in an elastic body are analyzed by using a multifield continuum model describing the influence of the microcracks on the gross mechanical behavior of the body. Numerical examples are presented: the strain localization phenomena that have been already found in deterministic bodies are confirmed, and similar patterns are shown to exist also for the stochastic moments of the displacements. In particular, the patterns in the portraits of skewness and kurtosis become stronger when the correlation of the distance between neighboring microcracks increases. Such a distance is considered as a uni-variate non-Gaussian random field. Strain localization is an indicator toward the irreversible growth and coalescence of microcracks.