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Abstract
Fracture mechanics plays a role in both structural engineering and materials engineering. The aim here is to improve
understanding of the behaviour of structures and materials in the limit state. The use of numerical models can help improve the
accuracy of our designs, but only if the certainty about material models improves. The models tend to become more detailed as
the performance of computers increases. However, the question is, will this increased amount of detail help to improve our
understanding, and improve the reliability of the numerical models. These questions are addressed in this paper. It is shown that
through increasing the amount of detail, certain phenomena may be observed that seem to correspond to limits that are reached
in practice as well. The example given is the limit reached when trying to fill a plane with circular aggregates. Next it is shown
that certain fracture behaviours of concrete can be simulated, be it that a virtual world is created. The role of the experiment is
evident. Another role for the experiment is in the development of bench-mark problems in structural engineering. These
benchmarks also serve to improve the quality of numerical models. Q 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Fracture mechanics; Structural engineering; Materials engineering; Numerical lattice model
1. Introduction
Mechanics is a tool which is required to predict
structural behaviour!? In using the tool, the real structure must be schematised, and assumptions made about
supports and possible critical loading cases. However,
based on earlier structural work, some experience is
needed in order to decide how the structure is to be
modelled, and which loading cases should be addressed. This means that before the new structure is
designed, the engineer has, first as an apprentice, but
later as a responsible craftsman, been involved in other
structural designs. The process of obtaining a new
design is a creative one, and requires imagination and
0950-0618r99r$ - see front matter Q 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 5 0 - 0 6 1 8 9 9 . 0 0 0 0 3 - 3
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
generally still possible in the shear band, and depending on the confining stress a lower or higher residual
stress level is measured. The pre-peak non-linearities
are caused by quasi-. stable microcrack processes, as
was for the first time demonstrated for concrete in tests
by Hsu et al. w2x.
Because the size of the critical crack in tension. and
the shear bands in compression. are of the same order
of magnitude as the characteristic specimen dimensions, new free boundaries are created which change
the problem completely. As a result, the post-peak
fracture process is affected by boundary conditions and
size effects. Thus, certainty about the true fracture
processes diminishes, and a model can be tuned only
through some inverse modelling process.
What is the way out of this paradoxical situation,
which can be formulated as follows: when for the final
check, the structural size has been decided, and details
of the structure have been figured out, it seems that
certainty about the material models evades. Before the
final stage the uncertainty about the material models
was just a single element from the complete set of
uncertainties of the entire design process, and of limited
importance. The way to proceed seems to bifurcate.
One possibility is to dive further into the materials, and
try to model the behaviour to an ever increasing degree
of detail. Microscopic processes are dealt with, which
require highly accurate experimental information that
can be obtained at large costs only. Computations at
the same detailed level require a huge computer capacity, again at increasing cost. The process seems to
correspond to the match between Achilles and the
tortoise: a never ending story, where however, the
match itself is the enjoyable part of it. The second
possibility is to revert to an engineering approach, and
to view the entire design process in the same way in the
conceptual design stage. In other words, consider the
complete system and optimise it, mostly through experience and through trial and error.
Thus, will it ever be possible to develop models for
concrete fracture with a sufficient amount of predictive
power for full-proof structural design? Can everything
be computed, or is engineering judgement just as important as anything else? These questions are a common area of debate between design and research engineers.
In this paper we will not try to solve these questions.
Rather we will focus on our ability to use numerical
models as a helpful tool to better understand the
mechanical behaviour of concrete as well as for developing constitutive equations. Moreover, the numerical
tools can be used to engineer new materials. As far as
mechanical behaviour is concerned, in particular the
fracture stage is of interest. The limit state is also of
interest to the structural engineer. For instance, the
rotational capacity of reinforced concrete structures is
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
1.
Ec s Va Ea q Vm Em
2.
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
Pk,eff
grains 1 F d
F 16 mm.
Pk,lattice
after overlay.
0.10
0.40
0.70
1.00
0.06
0.32
0.56
0.80
0.03
0.19
0.34
0.48
Fig. 1. Computer-generated particle distribution of concrete a. with overlay of a regular triangular lattice b,c.. In b. the length of the lattice
elements is 0.5 mm, in c. the length is 2.0 mm, after Van Mier et al. w10x.
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
Fig. 2. Four different particle distributions with variation of the fraction of rounded aggregates: P k,intended s 0.10 a., 0.40 b., 0.70 c. and 1.00
d., after Van Mier et al. w10x.
Fig. 3. Effect of aggregate content on Youngs overall modulus for the particle composites of Fig. 2. a. The case with Ea s 70 GPa and Em s 25
GPa; b. the case with Ea s 10 GPa and Em s 25 GPa, after Van Mier et al. w10x.
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
Table 2
Absolute and relative number of beams in different phases the total number of lattice elements beams. is 22 114.
Pk,intended
0.20
0.50
0.80
Aggregate
Bond
Matrix
Aggregate
Bond
Matrix
1741
5163
8759
2668
6707
9815
17 705
10 244
3540
0.08
0.24
0.40
0.12
0.30
0.44
0.80
0.46
0.16
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
Fig. 4. Crack patterns at peak load a. and at the end of the simulation b. for three different aggregate contents from left to right
P k,intended s 0.20, 0.50 and 0.80, respectively..
Note that after the first matrix beam has been failed
in the low aggregate simulation 0.20., failure is imminent. In this case, the matrix material has exceeded its
percolation threshold, and a continuous path of matrix
material will span the specimens width. The situation is
identical to the case where a high aggregate content is
present 0.80., but there } as argued before } the
bond elements have exceeded their percolation threshold.
Fig. 5. Load]deformation diagrams for the three analyses of Fig. 4: a. P k,intended s 0.20, b. 0.50, and c. 0.80.
10
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
Fig. 6. Photo-elastic coating experiment on a double-edge-notched concrete plate subjected to uniaxial tension uniform boundary displacement..
In a. ] c. the propagating cracks are visualised, d. shows a comparison of the photo-elastic crack path and the crack trajectory after complete
failure of the specimen. In e. the load]deformation curve is shown, after Van Mier w15x.
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
11
Fig. 8. Crack bands for 2-mm mortar a., 16-mm concrete b., lytag
light- weight concrete c., and high-strength concrete d., from Van
Mier w15x.
1
The resemblance between AE activity and the stepwise removal
of beams was suggested by Prof. Karihaloo.
12
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
Fig. 9. Energy dissipation from a single beam removal in the lattice model a., and number of elements removed plotted against deformation for
the three analyses of Fig. 4 b..
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
4. Conclusion
In this paper methods for determining the mechanical properties of materials are debated. In design,
knowledge of the properties of materials is essential.
Depending on the stage at which the design is, the
13
Fig. 11. Effect of specimen slenderness and boundary restraint on the stress]strain diagram in uniaxial compression w24x.
14
J.G.M. an Mier, M.R.A. an Vliet r Construction and Building Materials 13 (1999) 3]14
Thus, a close interaction between experiment and computation seems essential for improving the reliability of
the numerical models, which in the end should hopefully lead to qualitative better designs. However, let us
not forget the role of engineering judgement as a
crucial human role in the process. This role remains
vague to date, in particular it is ignored in so-called
rational approaches. However, it should get more attention in the future.
w14x
w15x
w16x
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