  A chemical evolution model following the evolution of the abundances of H,
He, C, N, O and Fe for dwarf irregular and blue compact galaxies is presented.
This model takes into account detailed nucleosynthesis and computes in detail
the rates of supernovae of type II and I. The star formation is assumed to have
proceeded in short but intense bursts. The novelty relative to previous models
is that the development of a galactic wind is studied in detail by taking into
account the energy injected into the interstellar medium (ISM) from both
supernovae and stellar winds from massive stars as well as the presence of dark
matter halos. Both metal enriched and normal winds have been considered. Our
main conclusions are: i) a substantial amount of dark matter (from 1 to 50
times larger than the luminous matter) is required in order to avoid the
complete destruction of such galaxies during strong starbursts, and ii) the
energy injected by stellar winds and type Ia supernovae into the ISM is
negligible relative to the total thermal energy, and in particular to the type
II supernovae, which in fact, dominate the energetics during starbursts.
