Abstract
Fracture mechanics parameters of concrete are determined by means of the compact tension (CT) test. The effects of ligament length, rate of loading and concrete composition on the specific fracture energy GF and the strain-softening diagram are investigated. As a first approximation of the real softening behaviour of concrete, a bilinear strain softening diagram is used in a finite-element analysis. A parameter study shows that several bilinear diagrams can represent the real behaviour equally well. With the bilinear softening diagram, a good agreement between both calculated and measured load-displacement curves and GF-values is obtained. The determined strain-softening diagrams are transformed into a normalized presentation. For each investigated testing condition, characteristics shapes of this normalized strain-softening diagram are obtained.
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Wittmann, F.H., Rokugo, K., Brühwiler, E. et al. Fracture energy and strain softening of concrete as determined by means of compact tension specimens. Materials and Structures 21, 21–32 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02472525
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02472525