Fracture Mechanics

Fracture mechanics for concrete can be a

useful tool for the designer because of the
insight it provides on size effects, that is,
how the size of a structural element will
affect the ultimate load capacity.
Fracture mechanics also provides powerful
criteria for the prediction of crack
propagation.
Fracture Mechanics
Linear elastic fracture mechanics theory was
developed in 1920, but not until 1961 was the first
experimental research in concrete performed.
Fracture mechanics was used successfully in
design for metallic and brittle materials early on;
however comparatively few applications were
found for concrete.
This trend continued up until the middle 70s
when finally major advances were made.
Fracture Mechanics
In the 80s and 90s intensive research has
been performed and applications of fracture
mechanics in design of beams, anchorage
and large dams are becoming more
common.
Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics
Griffith is often regarded as the founder of fracture
mechanics.
He observed experimentally that small imperfections have
a much less damaging effect on the material properties
than the large imperfections.
Griffith suggested an energy balance approach based not
only on the potential energy of the external loads and on
the stored elastic strain energy but also on another energy
term: the surface energy. 16
Crack in a plate
Crack in a plate
Griffith used a result obtained by Inglis17 that the
change in strain energy due to an elliptical crack in
an uniformly stressed plate is and
therefore the change in potential energy of the
external load is twice as much .
The change of energy of the plate due to the
introduction of the crack is given by:
a
2

2
E

U
cracked
U
uncracked
=
2 a
2

2
E
+
a
2

2
E
+ 4 a
Crack in a plate
Minimizing the energy in relation to the
crack length,

a

a
2

2
E
+ 4 a
|
\

|
.
= 0
gives the critical stress (for plane stress):
=
2 E
a
Importance of the equation
This equation is significant because it
relates the size of the imperfection (2a) to
the tensile strength of the material.
It predicts that small imperfections are less
damaging than large imperfections, as
observed experimentally.
Critical energy release rate
Irwin proposed that instead of using the
thermodynamic surface energy, one should
measure the characteristic surface energy of a
material in a fracture test.
He introduced the quantity Gc as the work
required to produce a unit increase in crack area.
Gc is also referred to as the critical energy
release rate.
Gc is determined experimentally, normally using
simple specimen configuration.
18
Critical energy release rate
The energy release per unit increase crack area, G,
is computed; if the energy release rate is lower
than the critical energy release rate (G < Gc ) the
crack is stable.
Conversely, if G> Gc, the crack propagates.
In the case when the energy release rate is equal to
the critical energy release rate (G=Gc), a
metastable equilibrium is obtained.
Example
Modes
Mode I: opening or tensile mode,
Mode II: sliding or in-plane shear mode
Mode III: tearing or antiplane shear mode.
Modes
Stresses at the tip of the crack for
mode I

y
=
K
I
2 r
cos

2
1 + sin

2
sin
3
2

x
=
K
I
2 r
cos

2
1 sin

2
sin
3
2

xy
=
K
I
2 r
sin

2
cos

2
cos
3
2

(
Stress-intensity factor
KI is called stress-intensity factor for
Mode I.
Dimensional analysis of indicates that the
stress-intensity factor must be linearly
related to stress and to the square root of a
characteristic length.
Assuming that this characteristic length is
associated with the crack length:
K
I
= a f g
( )
Fracture toughness
Suppose we measure the value of the stress
at fracture in a given test.
Using the previous equations, we determine
the critical stress intensity factor, Kc, or
fracture toughness as it is usually called in
the literature. .