Keywords: damage mechanics review, continuum damage, damage modeling, damage measurements, solid mechanics, computational mechanics.

Damage mechanics is used to model a wide range of types of damage in a wide range of materials. For example, damage mechanics is used to model the deterioration of mechanical properties in classical engineering materials like steel or concrete, but it is also used for predicting bone adaptation to stimuli after, for instance, the implantation of a prosthesis (bone remodeling). Many different models have been proposed in the literature to account for damage effects. These formulations can be categorized into three main approaches: abrupt criteria, porous solid plasticity and continuum damage mechanics. The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature on damage mechanics mainly from an engineering perspective, concentrating on the main assumptions, models and differences between the proposed formulations.

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