Determination of Fracture Energy of Concrete

Dr. G. APPA RAO

Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai 600 036, India.
 Fracture Energy of Concrete
•According to RILEM TC 50-FMC recommendations:

1. SPECIMEN
•Test specimen shall be a beam subjected to three-point loading.

D
a
b
l
• 50-Fracture Mechanics of Concrete draft recommendation
specifies method for determination of fracture energy of mortar
and concrete by means of stable three-point bend (TPB) tests on
notched beam specimens.

• Fracture energy is defined as the amount of energy necessary to

create unit area of crack surface.

• Area of crack surface is the projected area on a plane parallel to

main crack direction.
 Fracture Energy of Concrete
2. SIZE OF SPECIMEN
– Size of beam specimen shall depend on maximum size of
aggregate, Dmax.

– Beam shall have a central notch depth equal to half of beam

depth  5mm.

3. PREPARATION OF NOTCH
– Notch shall be made under wet conditions using saw at least
one day before testing
– May be cast using a wedge with angle of 10-15 degrees.

– Notch width at the tip shall be less than 10mm.

 Fracture Energy of Concrete
3. PREPARATION OF NOTCH
– Notch shall be made under wet conditions using saw at least
one day before testing
– May be cast using a wedge with angle of 10-15 degrees.

– Notch width at the tip shall be less than 10mm.

4. TYPE OF TESTING MACHINE
• Testing machine has to be stiff enough or should be furnished with a closed-
loop servo control in order to make it possible to perform stable tests.

• If testing machine has no closed–loop servo control, required stiffness is ≈

10kN/mm for testing small size standard beams.

• For large size standard beams, stiffness ≈ 25, 70 and 150kN/mm.

5. SUPPORT CONDITIONS
• Supports and loading arrangements shall be such that forces acting on the
beams are statically determinate i.e. Ball and Roller supports shall be used.

• Deformation of center of beam shall be determined with regard to a line

between two points on beam above supports
 Testing of Specimens
• TPB specimens may be tested using load control machine only on small size
beams.

• As specimens are small in size, it is possible to achieve stable post-peak

response with careful operation of testing machine.

• Load shall be increased at a constant rate up to peak.

• Point where peak load is about to reach may carefully be identified by slow
movement of load indicator.

• This corresponds to micro crack formation in front of crack tip.

• Micro cracks start extend at about a load of 80-90 percent of peak.

 TESTING OF SPECIMENS
• After peak load, rapid change in LVDT movement corresponds to macro crack
formation.

• In order to achieve stable crack growth and post-peak response of concrete,

pressure valve should be closed partially to avoid sudden dropping of load after
peak.

• When movement of load indicator becomes slow and starts to come back just
after peak load, again the pressure valve need to be opened slowly to achieve
stable softening response.

• Whole process of loading a specimen will be completed in 6 to 10 minutes.

 TESTING OF SPECIMENS
• Load shall be increased at a constant rate. At every load increment, using LVDT
fixed at crack mouth shall be monitored the displacement of crack mouth.

• Variation of load with CMOD is used to evaluate work of fracture and hence
the fracture energy.

• Stable post-peak response should be observed using displacement control with

stiff machine.

• However, the results from various laboratories indicated that the stable crack
growth could be achieved even in the ordinarily equipped laboratories.
 Fracture Energy, GF
• Earlier, fracture energy was calculated using TPB specimen from Load vs.
Displacement relationship.
• Errors associated with crushing of support, load points and significant
dissipation of energy in the bulk of concrete under highly stressed zones
forced to adapt Load vs. CMOD response.
• Fracture energy so obtained is free from above errors and is considered as
true fracture energy of concrete.

• Fracture Energy : Energy required for creating unit crack surface,

calculated as the work of fracture divided by area of uncracked ligament.
 Fracture Energy of Concrete
• Fracture energy is calculated from the equation
( wF  mg 0 )  m  J 
GF  ,  N  2   2  
Alig  m  m 
Where
WF = Area under the load-deformation curve,
m = m1 +2m2 (kgs),
m1 = Weight of the beam between the supports,
m2 = Weight of the part of the loading arrangement,
g = Acceleration due to gravity, 9.81 m/s2,
0 = Deformation at the final failure of the beam (m),
Alig = Area of the ligament.
Calculation of Fracture Energy

P
Work of Fracture

WF

0 mgδ0
δ0 δ
• Because Load - CMOD plots are used to obtain the work of fracture, same is
multiplied by a correction factor to account for response between Load -
CMOD and Load - Deflection relations, which are given by
c wc

GF 

0
Pd

S1  Pdw
0

Alig Alig

• Correction factor to account for the difference in fracture energy determined

using Load vs. Deflection, and Load vs. CMOD response depends up on span-
to-depth (l/d) ratios.
• For beam specimens with a/d = 0.5
• S1 = 0.815 for (l/d) = 4.0
• S1 = 1.256 for (l/d) = 6.0
• For beam specimens with (a/d) = 0.5 and (l/d) between 4 and 6, values of “S1”
are interpolated linearly.

• For a/d = 0.5, correction factors for evaluating fracture energy using Load vs.
CMOD variations are as follows:
• for l/d = 5.0 and S1 = 1.036

• for l/d = 4.4 and S1 = 0.905

• for l/d = 4.0 and S1 = 0.815