Fundamental problems of modeling the fracture processes in concrete II: Size effect and selection of the solution approach

Abstract

Theory of concrete fracture, despite all the efforts of numerous researchers, still did not provide the clear answer to the problem of modeling the fracture processes of concrete. Three well known theories are at hand: fracture mechanics, plasticity theory and mechanics of continuous damages. The fundamental assumptions, those theories are based on, do not completely correspond to the nature of concrete. They all are confronted with numerous problems, out of which the four are fundamental: damages micromechanics, damages localization, size effects and the dilemma when to apply the phenomenological and when the micromechanical approach to considering this problem. In this paper are considered the last two of those problems: size effect (scaling laws) and decision making what would be the best way in solving problems of modeling the fracture processes in concrete and concrete structures. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.