MULTI-SCALE MODELING AND DAMAGE ANALYSES OF LARGE CIVIL STRUCTURE ------MULTI-SCALE MECHANICS FROM MATERIAL TO STRUCTURE

This paper discusses firstly a newchallenge in securing safe and reliable service of large civilstructures: multi-scale modeling and damage analyses. Thenthe applications, the features of spatial multi-scales involved and therelated issues for multi-scale mechanics of materials and structures arereviewed. The theories and methods ofmulti-scale mechanics and multi-scale material modeling arebriefly discussed and several methods are paid a special attention,such as asymptotic analysis of periodical heterogeneous materials, partition of unity method andmulti-scale reproducing kernel method. The engineeringbackground and the current research progress for multi-scale structuralmodeling and damage analyses of large civil structure are summarized, andseveral key issues are proposed, among which are bridging insimulation, updating and verification of the multi-scale structural model,damage evolution in multiple temporal scales, trans-scale sensitivity in thesimulation of structural deterioration and final failure, and thestrategies of multi-scale modeling and simulation in engineeringcomputation of large civil structure.