• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.217-232
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• 2006

A crack model for the fracture in concrete based on meshless method is proposed in this paper. The cracks in concrete are classified into micro-cracks or macro-cracks respectively according to their widths, and different numerical approaches are adopted for them. The micro-cracks are represented with smeared crack approach whilst the macro-cracks are represented with discrete cracks that are made up with additional nodes and boundaries. The widely used meshless method, Element-free Galerkin method, is adopted instead of finite element method to model the concrete, so that the discrete crack approach is easier to be implemented with the convenience of arranging node distribution in the meshless method. Rotating-Crack-Model is proved to be preferred over Fixed-Crack-Model for the smeared cracks of this composite crack model due to its better performance on mesh bias. Numerical examples show that this composite crack model can take advantage of the positive characteristics in the smeared and discrete approaches, and overcome some of their disadvantages.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.587-604
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• 2015

The hybrid-type penalty method (HPM) is suitable for representing failure phenomena occurring during the transition from continua to discontinua in materials such as concrete. Initiation and propagation of dominant cracks and branching of cracks can easily be modeled as a discrete crack. The HPM represents a discrete crack by eliminating the penalty that represents the separation of the elements at the intersection boundary. This treatment is easy because no change in the degrees of freedom for the discrete crack is necessary. In addition, it is important to evaluate the correct deformation of the continua before the crack formation is initiated. To achieve this, we implemented a constitutive model of concrete for the HPM. In this paper, we explain the implemented constitutive model and describe the simulation of an anchor bolt pullout test using the HPM demonstrating its capability for evaluating progressive failure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.343-361
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• 2010

The Discrete Element Method adopting particles for the domain discretization has recently been adopted in fracture studies of non-homogeneous continuous media such as concrete and rock. A model is proposed in which the reinforcement is modelled by 1D rigid-spring discrete elements. The rigid bars interact with the rigid circular particles that simulate the concrete through contact interfaces. The DEM enhanced model with reinforcement capabilities is evaluated using three point bending and four point bending tests on reinforced concrete beams without stirrups. Under three point bending, the model is shown to reproduce the expected final crack pattern, the crack propagation and the load displacement diagram. Under four point bending, the model is shown to match the experimental ultimate load, the size effect and the crack propagation and localization.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.27-42
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• 2018

Behavior of soil is usually described with continuum type of failure models such as Mohr-Coulomb or Drucker-Prager model. The main advantage of these models is in a relatively simple and efficient way of predicting the main tendencies and overall behavior of soil in failure analysis of interest for engineering practice. However, the main shortcoming of these models is that they are not able to capture post-peak behavior of soil nor the corresponding failure modes under extreme loading. In this paper we will significantly improve on this state-of-the-art. In particular, we propose the use of a discrete beam lattice model to provide a sharp prediction of inelastic response and failure mechanisms in coupled soil-foundation systems. In the discrete beam lattice model used in this paper, soil is meshed with one-dimensional Timoshenko beam finite elements with embedded strong discontinuities in axial and transverse direction capable of representing crack propagation in mode I and mode II. Mode I relates to crack opening, and mode II relates to crack sliding. To take into account material heterogeneities, we determine fracture limits for each Timoshenko beam with Gaussian random distribution. We compare the results obtained using the discrete beam lattice model against those obtained using the modified three-surface elasto-plastic cap model.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.375-388
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• 2008

Crack opening governs many transfer properties that play a pivotal role in durability analyses. Instead of trying to combine continuum and discrete models in computational analyses, it would be attractive to derive from the continuum approach an estimate of crack opening, without considering the explicit description of a discontinuous displacement field in the computational model. This is the prime objective of this contribution. The derivation is based on the comparison between two continuous variables: the distribution if the effective non local strain that controls damage and an analytical distribution of the effective non local variable that derives from a strong discontinuity analysis. Close to complete failure, these distributions should be very close to each other. Their comparison provides two quantities: the displacement jump across the crack [U] and the distance between the two profiles. This distance is an error indicator defining how close the damage distribution is from that corresponding to a crack surrounded by a fracture process zone. It may subsequently serve in continuous/discrete models in order to define the threshold below which the continuum approach is close enough to the discrete one in order to switch descriptions. The estimation of the crack opening is illustrated on a one-dimensional example and the error between the profiles issued from discontinuous and FE analyses is found to be of a few percents close to complete failure.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.233-238
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• 1999

Localized failure analysis of concrete structures can be carried out effectively by modeling fracture process zone of concrete during crack initiation and propagation. But, the analysis techniques are still insufficient for crack modeling because of difficulties in numerical analysis procedure which describe progressive crack. In this paper, a finite element with embedded displacement discontinuity is introduced to remove the difficulties of remeshing for crack propagation in discrete crack model during progressive failure analysis of concrete structures. The performance of this so-called embedded crack approach for concrete failure analysis is verified by several analysis examples. The analysis results show that the embedded crack approach retains mesh size objectivity and can simulate localized failure under mixed mode loading. It can be concluded that the embedded crack approach cab be an effective alternate to the smeared and discrete crack approaches.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.125-145
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• 2020

In this paper, we present a 3D thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled discrete beam lattice model of structure built of the nonisothermal saturated poro-plastic medium subjected to mechanical loads and nonstationary heat transfer conditions. The proposed model is based on Voronoi cell representation of the domain with cohesive links represented as inelastic Timoshenko beam finite elements enhanced with additional kinematics in terms of embedded strong discontinuities in axial and both transverse directions. The enhanced Timoshenko beam finite element is capable of modeling crack formation in mode I, mode II and mode III. Mode I relates to crack opening, mode II relates to in-plane crack sliding, and mode III relates to the out-of-plane shear sliding. The pore fluid flow and heat flow in the proposed model are governed by Darcy's law and Fourier's law for heat conduction, respectively. The pore pressure field and temperature field are approximated with linear tetrahedral finite elements. By exploiting nodal point quadrature rule for numerical integration on tetrahedral finite elements and duality property between Voronoi diagram and Delaunay tetrahedralization, the numerical implementation of the coupling results with additional pore pressure and temperature degrees of freedom placed at each node of a Timoshenko beam finite element. The results of several numerical simulations are presented and discussed.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.228-240
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• 1991

Many experimental data of fatigue crack propagation show that the fatigue crack propagation process is stochastic. Therefore, the study on the crack propagation must be based on the probabilistic approach. In the present paper, fatigue crack propagation process is assumed to be a discrete Markov process and the method is developed, which can evaluate the reliability of the structural component by using Markov chain model(Unit step B-model) suggested by Bogdanoff. In this method, leak failure, plastic collapse and brittle fracture of the critical component are taken as failure modes, and the effects of initial crack distribution, periodic and non-periodic inspection on the probability of failure are considered. In this method, an equivalent load value for random loading such as wave load is used to facilitate the analysis. Finally some calculations are carried out in order to show the usefulness and the applicability of this method. And then some remarks on this method are mentioned.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.773-789
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• 2010

It is well known that the analytical vibration characteristic of a cracked beam depends largely on the crack model. In the forward analysis, an improved and simplified approach in modeling discrete open cracks in beams is presented. The effective length of the crack zone on both sides of a crack with stiffness reduction is formulated in terms of the crack depth. Both free and forced vibrations of cracked beams are studied in this paper and the results from the proposed modified crack model and other existing models are compared. The modified crack model gives very accurate predictions in the modal frequencies and time responses of the beams particularly with overlaps in the effective lengths with reduced stiffness. In the inverse analysis, the response sensitivity with respect to damage parameters (the location and depth of crack, etc.) is derived. And the dynamic response sensitivity is used to update the damage parameters. The identified results from both numerical simulations and experiment work illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.171-184
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• 2001

A direct discrete formulation suitable for the nonlinear analysis of masonry structures is presented. The numerical approach requires a pair of dual meshes, one for describing displacement fields, one for imposing equilibrium. Forces and displacements are directly used (instead of having to resort to a model derived from a set of differential equations). Associated and nonassociated flow laws are dealt with within a complementarity framework. The main features of the method and of the relevant computer code are discussed. Numerical examples are presented, showing that the numerical approach is able to describe plastic strains, damage effects and crack patterns in masonry structures.