Since the 90s, Ifsttar has developed probabilistic models for a reliable description of the cracking processes in concrete structures. These models take into consideration the inherent hetero- geneity of the material and the consecutive scale effects on its mechanical properties…
Since the 90s, Ifsttar has developed probabilistic models for a reliable description of the cracking processes in concrete structures. These models take into consideration the inherent hetero- geneity of the material and the consecutive scale effects on its mechanical properties via appropriate, and experimentally validated, size effect laws and random distributions. After a brief presentation of the models, the paper delivers some considerations on the fact that the efficiency and the relevance of the approach, for a given scale of modelling, directly depends on the judicious choice of the couple of type of local behaviour model - type of numerical support. It is also shown that this choice has an importantandobviousimpactontherichnessofthelocalinformationobtainedforcrackingprocesses (micro and macro cracking).