The hydromechanical behavior of saturated and partially saturated clay rocks has experienced in last decades an increase of interest due to potential applications (radioactive wastes disposal, CO_2 storage). One of the key issues is related to the assessment of initiation and evolution of fractures, both at macroscopic and pore scales. Despite the efforts to numerically capture such phenomena, several questions are still open, for instance related to the capability of models to predict fracture localization. The present paper aims to assess the use of a Lagrangian particulate approach, based on the SPH (Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics) method, which can address in the same formalism two-phase flow, movement of rigid inclusions and damage evolution in an elastic phase. In order to test the capability of SPH to describe the elastic damageable behavior, simulations of a bar submitted to a dynamical tensile load were conducted. Furthermore, we implemented and tested different energy-based formulations of damage models. The obtained results demonstrate that SPH method is able to capture both damage evolution and localization in dynamic conditions. It is shown that the size of the damaged zone is independent of the particle density (equivalent to the mesh size in a finite elements approach) in SPH and only dependent on the size of the smoothing/averaging neighborhood. This methodological study will be helpful to guide application of SPH method to completely or partially saturated natural rocks.