microplane

One of a set of planes, variously oriented and microscopically bounded, within a material, used in modelling stresses etc.

6.7.2 Microplane Models: The framework of anisotropic damage models allows for the incorporation of models that are based on the microplane concept. The microplane concept was originally conceived for metals, where well-defined planes exist in the crystal lattice, along which slip occurs preferentially. This theory, originated by Batdorf and Budiansky (1949), was originally named the slip theory and is now commonly referred to as crystal plasticity (Miehe and Schotte 2004). Later, the concept of preferential slip planes was adapted to damage and fracture in quasi-brittle materials such as concrete and rock and was renamed the microplane model (Bazant and Gambarova 1984) or multilaminate model (Zienkiewicz and Pande 1977). Obviously, the physical basis is now less obvious in the sense that preferential fracture planes cannot be distinguished, but by defining a sufficiently large number of potential fracture planes the damage evolution can be described accurately. Two major classes of microplane models can be distinguished, namely those based on the kinematic constraint and those based on a static constraint.

A very small airplane: a micro-airplane; especially, one that can carry a human.

Near-synonym: microlight