• KCI Concrete Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.211-221
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• 1999

A method to determine the fracture energy of concrete is investigated. The fracture energy may be calculated from the area under the complete load-deflection curve which can be obtained from a stable three-point bend test. Several series of concrete beams have been tested. The Present experimental study indicates that the fracture energy decreases as the initial notch-to-beam depth ratio increases Some problems to be observed to employ the three-point bend method are discussed. The appropriate ratio of initial notch-to-beam depth to determine the fracture energy of concrete is found to be 0.5. It is also found that the influence of the self-weight of a beam to the fracture energy is very small A simple and accurate formula to predict the fracture energy of concrete is proposed.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.19 no.1E
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• pp.25-32
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• 2007

The fracture energy evaluated from the previous experimental results can be simulated by using the modified singular fracture process zone (S-FPZ) model. The fracture model has two fracture properties of strain energy release rate for crack extension and crack close stress versus crack width relationship $f_{ccs}(w)$ for fracture process zone (FPZ) development. The $f_{ccs}(w)$ relationship is not sensitive to specimen geometry and crack velocity. The fracture energy rate in the FPZ increases linearly with crack extension until the FPZ is fully developed. The fracture criterion of the strain energy release rate depends on specimen geometry and crack velocity as a function of crack extension. The behaviors of micro-cracking, micro-crack localization and full development of the FPZ in concrete can be explained theoretically with the variation of strain energy release rate with crack extension.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.99-104
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• 1994

Recently, nonlinear fracture mechanics was applied to analyze concrete structures more accurately, and new materials property such as fracture energy(Gf) was used for its application. The fracture energy was influenced by many parameters, especially the strength of concrete. Many researches on the relation between the strength of concrete and the fracture energy were performed. In spite of many researches on the relation between the strength of concrete and the fracture energy, there is no distinct conclusion. This research includes various the strength levels from low-strength of concrete to high-strength, and then intends to estimate relation between the strength of concrete and the fracture energy. Concrete used crushed sand is also included, which is going to be used much. In this research, the wedge splitting test method proposed by Prof. Linsbauer is adopted to investigate the fracture energy. Fracture behavior of concrete used natrual sand and crushed sand has the similar trend. In the strength range of 200~500 kg/$\textrm{cm}^2$, the fracture energy and the maximum splitting forces(F) increase as the strength of concrete increases. In the range of the higher strength, however, the maximum splitting forces(F) increases but the fracture energy decreases as the strength of concrete increases. Through this investigation the fracture energy of concrete was not proportional to the strength of concrete.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.1201-1216
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• 2015

This paper presents the details of size independent fracture energy and bi-linear tension softening relation for nano modified high strength concrete. Nano silica in powder form has been used as partial replacement of cement by 2 wt%. Two popular methods, namely, simplified boundary effect method of Karihaloo et al. (2003) and RILEM (1985) fracture energy with P-${\delta}$ tail correction have been employed for estimation of size independent fracture energy for nano modified high strength concrete (compressive strength ranges from 55 MPa to 72 MPa). It is found that both the methods gave nearly same values, which is an additional evidence that either of them can be employed for determination of size independent fracture energy. Bi-linear tension softening relation corresponding to their size independent fracture energy has been constructed in an inverse manner based on the concept of non-linear hinge from the load-crack mouth opening plots of notched three-point bend beams.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.18 no.3E
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• pp.213-219
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• 2006

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.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.111-121
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• 2018

It has been argued that fracture energy of composite laminates depends on their thickness and number of layers. In this paper a modified direct energy balance approach (DEBA) has been developed to evaluate the mode-II shear fracture energy for E-glass/Epoxy laminates from finite element model at an arbitrary thickness. This approach considers friction and damage/plasticity deformations using cohesive zone modeling (CZM) and nonlinear finite element modeling. The presence of compressive stress and resulting friction was argued to be a possible cause for the thickness dependency of fracture energy. In the finite element modeling, CZM formulation has been developed with bilinear cohesive constitutive law combined with friction consideration. Also ply element have been developed with shear plastic damage model. Modified direct energy balance approach has been proposed for estimation of mode-II shear fracture energy. Experiments were performed on laminates of glass epoxy specimens for characterization of material parameters and determination of mode-II fracture energies for different thicknesses. Effect of laminate thickness on fracture energy of transverse crack tension (TCT) and end notched flexure (ENF) specimens has been numerically studied and comparison with experimental results has been made. It is shown that the developed numerical approach is capable of estimating increase in fracture energy due to size effect.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2004

The influence of the fracture process zone (FPZ) on the fracture properties is one of the hottest topics in the field of fracture mechanics for cementitious materials. Within the FPZ in front of a traction free crack, cohesive forces are distributed in accordance with the softening stress-separation constitutive relation of the material. Therefore, further crack propagation necessitates energy dissipation, which is the work done by the cohesive forces. In this paper $g_f$, the local fracture energy characterizing the energy consumption due to the cohesive forces, is discussed. The computational expression of $g_f$ in the FPZ can be obtained for any stage during the material fracture process regarding the variation of FPZ, whether in terms of its length or width. $G_{fa}$, the average energy consumption along the crack extension region, has also been computed and discussed in this paper. The experimental results obtained from the wedge splitting tests on specimens with different initial notch ratios are employed to investigate the property of the local fracture energy $g_f$ and the average value $G_{fa}$ over the crack extension length. These results can be used to indicate the influence of the FPZ. Additionally, changes in the length of the FPZ during the fracture process are also studied.

• KCI Concrete Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.30-35
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• 2002

The fractal geometry is a non-Euclidean geometry which describes the naturally irregular or fragmented shapes, so that it can be applied to fracture behavior of materials to investigate the fracture process. Fractal curves have a characteristic that represents a self-similarity as an invariant based on the fractal dimension. This fractal geometry was applied to the crack growth of cementitious composites in order to correlate the fracture behavior to microstructures of cementitious composites. The purpose of this study was to find relationships between fractal dimensions and fracture energy. Fracture test was carried out in order to investigate the fracture behavior of plain and fiber reinforced cement composites. The load-CMOD curve and fracture energy of the beams were observed under the three point loading system. The crack profiles were obtained by the image processing system. Box counting method was used to determine the fractal dimension, D$_{f}$. It was known that the linear correlation exists between fractal dimension and fracture energy of the cement composites. The implications of the fractal nature for the crack growth behavior on the fracture energy, G$_{f}$ is apparent.ent.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2023

This study explores a new energy partitioning approach to determine the fracture toughness of 3-D printed pristine/recycled high density polyethylene (HDPE) blends employing the essential work of fracture (EWF) concept. The traditional EWF approach conducts a uniaxial tensile test with double-edge notched tensile (DENT) specimens and measures the total energy defined by the area under a load-displacement curve until failure. The approach assumes that the entire total energy contributes to the fracture process only. This assumption is generally true for extruded polymers that fracture occurs in a material body. In contrast to the traditional extrusion manufacturing process, the current 3-D printing technique employs fused deposition modeling (FDM) that produces layer-by-layer structured specimens. This type of specimen tends to include separation energy even after the complete failure of specimens when the fracture test is conducted. The separation is not relevant to the fracture process, and the raw experimental data are likely to possess random variation or noise during fracture testing. Therefore, the current EWF approach may not be suitable for the fracture characterization of 3-D printed specimens. This paper proposed a new energy partitioning approach to exclude the irrelevant energy of the specimens caused by their intrinsic structural issues. The approach determined the energy partitioning location based on experimental data and observations. Results prove that the new approach provided more consistent results with a higher coefficient of correlation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.364-376
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• 1998

The statistical analysis method was applied to the evaluation of fracture toughness in the ductile-brittle transition temperature region. Because cleavage fracture in steel is of a statistical nature, fracture toughness data or values show a similar statistical trend. Using the three-parameter Weibull distribution, a fracture toughness vs. temperature curve (K-curve) was directly generated from a set of fracture toughness data at a selected temperature. Charpy V-notch impact energy was also used to obtain the K-curve by a $K_{IC}$ -CVN (Charpy V-notch energy) correlation. Furthermore, this method was applied to evaluate the neutron irradiation embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel. Most of the fracture toughness data were within the 95% confidence limits. The prediction of a transition temperature shift by statistical analysis was compared with that from the experimental data.