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Fracture of Concrete Material
Fracture of Concrete Material
Fracture Mechanics
Linear elastic fracture mechanics theory was
developed in 1920, but not until 1961 was the first
experimental research in concrete performed.
Fracture mechanics was used successfully in
design for metallic and brittle materials early on;
however comparatively few applications were
found for concrete.
This trend continued up until the middle 70s
when finally major advances were made.
Fracture Mechanics
In the 80s and 90s intensive research has
been performed and applications of fracture
mechanics in design of beams, anchorage
and large dams are becoming more
common.
Crack in a plate
Crack in a plate
Griffith used a result obtained by Inglis17 that the
change in strain energy due to an elliptical crack in
an uniformly stressed plate is a 2 2 E and
therefore the change in potential energy of the
external load is twice as much .
The change of energy of the plate due to the
introduction of the crack is given by:
U cracked Uuncracked =
2 a2 2
E
a2 2
E
+ 4 a
Crack in a plate
Minimizing the energy in relation to the
crack length,
a 2 2
+ 4 a = 0
E
a
2 E
a
Example
Modes
Mode I: opening or tensile mode,
Mode II: sliding or in-plane shear mode
Mode III: tearing or antiplane shear mode.
Modes
x =
3
cos 1 + sin sin
2r
2
2
2
KI
2
2r
2
2
KI
3
xy =
sin cos cos
2 r
2
2
2
KI
Stress-intensity factor
KI is called stress-intensity factor for
Mode I.
Dimensional analysis of indicates that the
stress-intensity factor must be linearly
related to stress and to the square root of a
characteristic length.
Assuming that this characteristic length is
associated with the crack length:
K I = a f (g )
Fracture toughness
Suppose we measure the value of the stress
at fracture in a given test.
Using the previous equations, we determine
the critical stress intensity factor, Kc, or
fracture toughness as it is usually called in
the literature. .