Abstract
The paper presents a discrete meso-scale model for fracture of concrete taking into account random spatial variability of material parameters. Beams of various sizes, with notches of various depths, are simulated numerically to study the combination of energetic and statistical size effects. A substantial part of material randomness is shown to be caused by random locations of the largest aggregates. Further randomness, due to random fluctuations of material parameters, is considered and an effect of introducing a spatially auto-correlated random field is analyzed. The results of the simulations are compared with recently published experimental data on concrete beams in three-point bending. The differences in the role of randomness in beams of various sizes, with different notch depths, are demonstrated, and differences in energy dissipation are discussed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-16 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Engineering Fracture Mechanics |
| Volume | 135 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 1 2015 |
Funding
The presented work was initiated during Fulbright research stay of the first author at the Northwestern University under the supervision of prof. Zdeněk P. Bažant. Further financial support received from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under projects LH12062 and LO1408 “AdMaS UP - advanced Materials, Structures and Technologies” under the “National Sustainability Programme I” and the Czech Science Foundation under project GA13-03662S is gratefully acknowledged.
Keywords
- Concrete structures
- Discrete model
- Energy dissipation
- Fracture testing
- Lattice-particle models
- Notch depth effect
- Size effect
- Statistical methods
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Materials Science
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering