Denneman E., Wu R., Kearsley E.P., Visser A.T.
University of California Pavement Research Center, 1353 South 46th Street, Bldg. 452, Richmond, CA 94804, United States; Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa; CSIR Built Environment, Meiring Naudé Road, Pretoria, 0184, South Africa
Denneman, E., University of California Pavement Research Center, 1353 South 46th Street, Bldg. 452, Richmond, CA 94804, United States, CSIR Built Environment, Meiring Naudé Road, Pretoria, 0184, South Africa; Wu, R., University of California Pavement Research Center, 1353 South 46th Street, Bldg. 452, Richmond, CA 94804, United States; Kearsley, E.P., Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa; Visser, A.T., Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa
In this paper a simple, but effective methodology to simulate opening mode fracture in high performance fibre reinforced concrete is presented. The main contribution of the paper is a technique to extrapolate the load displacement curves of three point bending experiments on fibre reinforced concrete. The extrapolation allows the full work of fracture to be determined, from which the fracture energy may be obtained. The fracture energy is used in the definition of a cohesive softening function with crack tip singularity. The softening relation is implemented in an embedded discontinuity method, which is employed for the numerical simulation of three point bending experiments. The experimental work includes a size effect study on three point bending specimens. The numerical simulation provides a satisfactory prediction of the flexural behaviour and the size effect observed in the experiments. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.
Civil engineering structures; Discrete fractures; Embedded discontinuity; Embedded discontinuity method; Fibre reinforced concrete; Fibre reinforced materials; High-performance fibres; Load-displacement curve; Numerical simulation; Opening mode fracture; Satisfactory predictions; Size effects; Three point bending; Three-point-bending experiments; Work of fracture; Civil engineering; Computer simulation; Concrete buildings; Crack tips; Cracks; Experiments; Extrapolation; Fibers; Fracture; Fracture energy; Numerical methods; Reinforced concrete; Fiber reinforced materials