Georg Koval

When subjected to external forces, the mechanical behavior of granular materials may range from static to dynamic. Unconfined granular beds, for example, are easily fluidized by vibratory loading. Under confinement, this type of material may also exhibit observable effects due to vibrations regarding their volumetric and strength behaviors. In this paper, the shear strength and dilatancy of dry confined granular materials subjected to vibrations are investigated using discrete element simulations of a triaxial cell. The material is first subjected to isotropic compression. Then, with controlled lateral stresses and imposed vertical motion, shear and compressive stresses are applied to a cubic sample. Additional harmonic displacements of the walls induce vertical and horizontal vibrations in the system during the shear tests. Finally, the impact of the amplitude, frequency, and direction of the vibrations on the angles of internal friction and dilatancy of the material is analyzed and compared to observations from the literature.

Tensile strength and fracture toughness are two essential material parameters for the study of concrete fracture. The experimental procedures to measure these two fracture parameters might be complicated due to their dependence on the specimen size or test method. Alternatively, based on the fracture test results only, size and boundary effect models can determine both parameters simultaneously. In this study, different versions of boundary effect models developed by Hu et al. were summarized, and a modified Hu-Guan’s boundary effect model with a more appropriate equivalent crack length definition is proposed. The proposed model can correctly combine the contributions of material strength and linear elastic fracture mechanics on the failure of concrete material with any maximum aggregate size. Another size and boundary model developed based on the local energy concept is also introduced, and its capability to predict the fracture parameters from the fracture test results of wedge-splitting and compact tension specimens is first validated. In addition, the classical Bažant’s Type 2 size effect law is transformed to its boundary effect shape with the same equivalent crack length as Koval-Gao’s size and boundary effect model. This improvement could extend the applicability of the model to infer the material parameters from the test results of different types of specimens, including the geometrically similar specimens with constant crack-length-to-height ratios and specimens with different initial crack-length-to-height ratios. The test results of different types of specimens are adopted to verify the applicability of different size and boundary effect models for the determination of fracture toughness and tensile strength of concrete material. The quality of the extrapolated fracture parameters of the different models are compared and discussed in detail, and the corresponding recommendations for predicting the fracture parameters for dam concrete are proposed.

The repeatedly applied low-intensity loads would lead to the damage and fatigue crack growth of mechanical structures made of quasi-brittle materials. In numerical modelling, these two mechanisms are normally treated differently and separately; the damage is usually associated with nonlocal approaches, while the fatigue crack growth is related to the local stress intensity range at the crack tip. In this study, a discrete element model for damage and fatigue crack growth of quasi-brittle materials is proposed, which is able to model the damage and fatigue crack growth simultaneously in one single model. The proposed model achieves the implementation of a continuum damage model in a discrete element code, which is a helpful enrichment of this numerical method. The evaluation method of the stress intensity range during the damage evolution provides a way to couple both failure mechanisms. This feature allows crack initiation to be induced by localized damage and a progressive transition to a fracture behaviour with the crack propagation. Independent parameters for the fatigue damage model and fatigue crack growth model are admitted without any previous calibration. The numerical results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions of damage and fracture mechanics, and intact and precracked samples are analysed under fatigue loading to show the consistent coexistence of fractured and damaged zones in a single model.

EPJ Web of Conferences, open-access proceedings in physics and astronomy

The fracture behaviors of quasi-brittle materials are commonly specimen size (size effect) and crack size (boundary effect) dependent. In this study, a new failure model is developed for characterizing the size and boundary effects. The derivative of the energy release rate is firstly introduced to predict the nominal strength dominated by the strength mechanism. Combined with the energy criterion for the energy mechanism, an asymptotic model is developed to capture the effect of any crack size on the nominal strength, and its expression for geometrically similar specimens is also established, which is able to characterize the size effect. Detailed comparisons of the proposed model with the size effect law and the boundary effect model are performed, respectively. The nominal strength predictions based on the proposed model are validated with the experimental results of cracked three-point bending beam specimens made of concrete, of limestone and of hardened cement paste and compared with the model predictions given by the size effect law and the boundary effect model.

Summary: In the absence of initial cracks, the material behavior is limited by its strength, usually defined in homogeneous conditions (of stress and strain). Beyond this limit, in quasi‐brittle case, cracks may propagate and the material behavior tends to be well described by fracture mechanics. Discrete element approaches show consistent results dealing with this transition during rupture. However, the calibration of the parameters of the numerical models (i.e., stiffness, strength, and toughness) may be quite complex and sometimes only approximative. Based on a brittle rupture criterion, we analyze the biaxial response of uncracked samples. Thus, tensile and compressive strengths are analytically identified and become direct parameters of our discrete model. Furthermore, a physically reliable crack initiation (and subsequent propagation) is shown to be induced during rupture and verified by the simulation of three‐point bending and diametral compression tests. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.