Evaluation of Strength Statistics of Quasibrittle Structures Based on Mean Size Effect Analysis

摘要

This paper presents a new method to indirectly determine the probability distribution function of strength of quasibrittle structures.Based on the finite weakest link model,which relates the probability distribution of the structural strength to the size dependence of mean strength,it is shown that that the cumulative distribution function of structural strength can be directly determined from the parameters of the mean size effect curve.A comprehensive experimental set of tests,which includes both strength histograms and mean size effect tests on specimens of asphalt mixture at low temperature,is used to verify the proposed method.The predicted strength histograms obtained with this method are found to be in very good agreement with the experimental histograms of asphalt mixture specimens of different sizes,confirming the validity of the newly proposed formulation.