Applying a fracture mechanics approach on FRC beams, material testing and structural analysis

Magazine article, 2008

The presented work has been focused on strain-softening FRC and the interrelationship between material properties and structural behaviour. The main purpose of this work was to establish a procedure for structural analysis of flexural members with a combination of steel fibres and conventional reinforcement. A systematic approach for material testing and structural analysis, based on fracture mechanics, has been used and this covers: (1) material testing; (2) inverse analysis; (3) adjustment of the -w relationship for fibre efficiency; and (4) cross-sectional and structural analysis. The results suggest that the approach used for the material testing provides the necessary properties to perform analyses based on non-linear fracture mechanics. The structural behaviour could be predicted with good agreement with FEM using both bi-linear and multi-linear -w relationships. When comparing the peak loads obtained in the experiments with the results from the analyses, the agreement was good, with a high correlation. This demonstrates the strength of the fracture-mechanics approach for material testing and structural analysis.