In contrast to tensile fracture, shear compression fracture of concrete has not been treated in depth in the literature, in spite of its practical significance in many situations such as confined pull-out, impact, etc. In this paper, we describe the…
In contrast to tensile fracture, shear compression fracture of concrete has not been treated in depth in the literature, in spite of its practical significance in many situations such as confined pull-out, impact, etc. In this paper, we describe the experimental work carried out at ETSECCPB- UPC in order to elucidate the existence of such second mode of fracture and evaluate the associated fracture energy in combination with advanced numerical modeling. A short cylindrical specimens with coaxial cylindrical notches similar to those proposed by Luong (1990) is introduced in a large- capacity triaxial cell, protected with membranes and subject to different levels of confining pressure prior to vertical loading. The specimens tested show a clear shear-compression crack that follows the pre-established crack path, which is in itself a significant achievement. Also, the load- displacement curves for various confining pressures seem to follow the expected trend according to the underlying conceptual model. Finally, a numerical model based on the FEM with zero-thickness interface elements is employed to simulate the fracture initiation and development process, and to identify the fracture parameters including the fracture energies in modes I and IIa out of the experimental curves.