Owing to its central role in describing the fracture behavior of concrete, the fracture process zone has been studied both experimentally and theoretically. This paper presents a numerical approach to describe the fracture process zone of notched concrete beams subjected…
Owing to its central role in describing the fracture behavior of concrete, the fracture process zone has been studied both experimentally and theoretically. This paper presents a numerical approach to describe the fracture process zone of notched concrete beams subjected to three point bending. The FPZ length is determined numerically during the fracturing process by evaluating the tangential stress along the crack path with a mesoscopic finite element modeling framework. The link between the fracture process zone and crack length in concrete structure is investigated. The ratio between the crack length and FPZ length is not constant throughout the cracking process but is varying into three stages of crack propagation. It has been also proved that the FPZ length increase with increasing the crack length and then decreases gradually after that. The numerical crack extension is therefore used to investigate the R-curves.