Prediction of Quasi-Brittle Fracture of Concrete and Rock Structures Using Laboratory-Sized Specimens

A simple method is developed for predicting the fracture behaviour of struetures made of quasi-brittle materials sueh as eonerete and roek using the data from laboratory-sized speeimens. The method is based on the reeently-developed boundary effeet concept and associated asymptotic model. It is demonstrated that the ＂apparent＂ size dependence of fraeture behaviour of concrete and rock is in fact due to the influence of specimen boundaries. Various size effect phenomena that are often observed in fracture meehanies tests of eoncrete and roek are related to each other, and the asymptotie boundary effect model can explain all the observed ＂size＂ effeet phenomena. Four types of experimental results available in the literature （ineluding the data measured on （1） the speeimens of identical size with different crack-to-size （α） ratios, （2） specimens of different sizes with different a-ratios, （3） different types of specimens and （4） geometrieally similar speeimens） are used to verify the asymptotic boundary effect model, and it is found that the predictions of the model agree very well with the experimental results. Furthermore, the important fracture properties, fracture toughness KIC and strength f, of quasi-brittle materials sueh as eonerete and roek can also be calculated using the formulae provided in the model.