"MODE II FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF CONCRETE "COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This research represents computational analysis aimed at determining fracture toughness of concrete in Mode II fracture. Many specimens were used for this purpo e and analysis was carried out using computer program WCOl\.1D-SJ. Specimens vary in crack length while crack width and concrete strength were kept constant. Fracture toughness is determined as the area under the load - slip curve up to the peak load divided by the shear ligament area at the shear plane.

To verify the program many types of verification were carried out and discussed in this study. The analysis results indicate that the adopted models ofRC are acceptable. Furthermore, the program was tested with an experiment and gave a good accuracy.

In order to find a relation between displacement and load, eight series were adopted, each series contained eleven specimens, different in crack ratio but with fixed crack width. In each series the concrete strength ranged between 100 to 600 Kg/cm2 with increment of 50 Kg/cm2, also at the series the crack ratio ranged between zero to 0.7 with increment of 0.1.

All the data were adopted to estimate the idealized curve related between the displacement and load functioned in crack ratio "a/w" where "a" is the crack length and "w" is the interface crack ligament. The fracture toughness of mode II is calculated for all specimens and compared to the available test results.