BARC/PUB/2011/0238

 
 

Size-independent fracture energy in plain concrete beams using tri-linear model

 
     
 
Author(s)

Muralidhara, S.; Prasad, B. K. R.; Karihaloo, B. L.; Singh, R. K.

Source

Construction and Building Materials, 2011. Vol. 25 (7): pp. 3051-3058

ABSTRACT

The boundary effect or the size effect on the fracture properties of concrete has been studied assuming a bi-linear model for the distribution of local fracture energy concept. Boundary effect is observed not only near the back boundary but also near the notch tip, where a fictitious boundary seems to exist, separating the linear and non-linear fracture zones. In this paper a tri-linear function is assumed for the local fracture energy distribution along the ligament and expressions relating RILEM fracture energy and the size-independent fracture energy are developed. Transition ligament length  measurements based on the acoustic emission (AE) histogram of events are used to obtain size-independent fracture energy. Length of the fracture process zone is identified in the AE histogram and compared with the value obtained from softening beam model. There seems to be a good agreement between the results.

 
 
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