Numerical simulation for evaluating the fracture energy of self-compacting concrete

摘要

According to fracture mechanics approach, size of the specimen significantly influence the mechanical properties of concrete. It is widely reported that the brittleness of the specimen increases with increase in size of the specimen. This brittle behavior is mainly related to the development of size of fracture process zone. When special concrete such as selfcompacting concrete is considered, though the ingredients are same as of conventional concrete, the proportioning of the ingredients to obtain self compact ability greatly affects the fracture characteristics. This study aims firstly to study the size effect of self-compacting concrete (SCC) beams using three different grades (normal, medium and high strength) of SCC specimens. The properties such as fracture energy, peak load, crack initiation, crack propagation and crack pattern of SCC are studied by conducting experiments. Secondly, an attempt has been made to develop a model to simulate the experimental condition to capture the size effect for all the SCC beams. It is found that the model developed is capable of reasonably capturing the size effect of three different grades of SCC specimens.