Accurate modeling of failure of geomaterials is the key to the success of a diverse range of engineering challenges including the topic of CO2 sequestration, nuclear waste disposal and hydrocarbon production plus civil engineering projects for tunnels or excavations. The aim of this thesis is to develop macroscopic damage evolution laws based on explicit descriptions of fracture at the micro-scale level which can be successfully employed to describe long term damage behavior of geologic storage sites. The approach taken is based on homogenization through asymptotic developments combined with micro-crack propagation energy analysis which leads to an explicit quantification of the acoustic emission (AE) energy associated with damage. Proposed damage models are capable of modeling the degradation of elastic moduli due to the micro-crack evolution. This representation allows the modeling of wave propagation in a medium with evolving damage. Two types of damage models will be considered: time independent and time dependent. Time independent damage models capable of describing progressive micro-cracking propagation (i.e. quasi-brittle type damage law) are considered. In the case of time-dependent damage models, the evolution of the micro-crack length during propagation is described through a sub-critical criterion and mixed mode propagation by branching. Using the time dependent damage model including rotational micro-cracks, simulations will be made at three levels: laboratory, tunnel and reservoir scales.
