It has been well over thirty years since Hillerborg and Bazant presented their land- mark papers (cohesive crack and size effect models respectively), and since the author submitted his Ph.D. dissertation on the application of fracture mechanics to concrete. Yet, the practical applica- tions of fracture mechanics have been few and far in between. In
In order to build sustainable structures, the study of mechanical behavior must integrate with local phenomena, e.g. fracture and strain localization. The fracture usually develops in the form of main crack, with branches, secondary cracks and the microcracking zone ahead. Various experimental methods are already employed to detect the fracture process. In this study, digital
A novel experimental method was developed to measure the cyclic response of the process zone at crack tip in a mortar. The test geometry was designed so as to measure both the fracture toughness and the fatigue crack growth rate using the same specimen and hence the same material. The tests conducted showed that a
Shear resisting mechanisms and the diagonal cracking behavior of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) beams with stirrups were discussed in this paper. Five FRC beams with various types of fibers, which were 30-mm and 60-mm long and made of steel, polypropylene, polyvinyl alcohol, and polyethylene terephthalate, were tested. The method to evaluate shear carried by fibers
A bending test program on the series of RC deep beams with the effective depth, d, of 200, 400 and 600 mm has been performed. The transverse reinforcement ratio was va~ied from 0.0, 0.4 to 0.8 percent. The distribution of the local strains inside specimens, both of concrete and remforcement, has been measured. The test
is described by a nonlocal damage model. The nonlocal formulation serves as an efficient localization limiter and leads to objective results, However, fine grids are necessary to resolve the bands of localized strains, and stress oscillations often appear in low-order elements due to a mismatch between the interpolation of local and nonlocal quantities. This calls
The paper presents a novel method making it possible to apply complex material models, such as the microplane model, in finite element calculations with variable finite element sizes, and with element sizes larger than the material characteristic length.
This paper investigates the fracture process zone (FPZ) of mixed mode I-II fracture in concrete after sustained loading, employing the digital image correlation (DIC) technique. Concrete specimens were subjected to sustained three-point bending (TPB) and four-point shearing (FPS) loading for 90 days, with the sustained load level at 80% of the initial cracking load. Afterward,
This paper presents a novel mesh reorientation algorithm that enhances the reliability of crack path prediction in cohesive zone cracking models by reducing the inherent mesh bias. The pro- posedmethodrealignsinterfaceelementstomaximizetheirlocaltensiletraction,facilitatingcracking in energetically more favorable direction. Extensive testing shows that the algorithm consistently im- proves results in 2D and 3D applications, enabling more reliable predictions, including
Interfacial properties in layered microstructures such as composites, rocks, and 3D-printed brittle materials play a significant role in bulk fracture and failure mechanisms, and are critical for the purposeful design of toughening mechanisms in architected materials. Capturing the role of the interface in crack propagation of layered materials is challenging due to the need to