Analysis of the Crack Propagation in Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Specimens Using the Bem

Abstract

The mechanical properties of plain concretes are improved with the introduction of steel fibers like the material toughness along with limited crack widths. Numerical investigations on fiber reinforced concrete specimens use models for cohesive crack propagation in quasi-brittle materials. The present crack propagation analysis considered the single-edge notched beam under the three-point bending test. The material softening modeling used the cohesive law with two straight lines within a pure mode I for the crack growth. The dual boundary element method employed quadratic elements and the tangential differential operator in the traction boundary integral equation. The introduction of the constitutive law in the system of equations allowed the direct computation of the cohesive forces at each incremental loading step. The boundary element mesh employed continuous elements along the crack surface and the results obtained are compared with those available in the literature.