Experimental Determination of Concrete Fracture Properties with Modified S-FPZ Model

Modified singular fracture process zone(S-FPZ) model is proposed in this paper to determine a fracture criterion for continuous crack propagation in concrete. The investigated fracture properties of the proposed fracture model are strain energy release rate at a micro-crack tip and the relationship between crack closure stress(CCS) and crack opening displacement(COD) in the FPZ. The proposed model can simulate the actual fracture energy of experimental results fairly well. The results of the experimental data analysis show that specimen geometry and loading condition did not affect the CCS-COD relation. However, the strain energy release rate is a function of not only specimen geometry but also crack extension. The strain energy release rate remained constantly at the minimum value up to the crack extension of 25 mm, and then it increased linearly to the maximum value. The maximum fracture criterion occurred at the peak load for specimens of large size. The fracture criterion remained at the maximum value after the peak load. The variation of the fracture criterion is caused by micro-cracking and micro-crack localization. The fracture criterion of strain energy release rate can simply be the size effect of concrete fracture, and it can be used to quantify the micro-cracking and micro-crack localizing behavior of concrete.