A Review of Analysis of Concrete Beam by Fracture Mechanics Approach

Petersson (1981) had conducted a three-point bend test on notched concrete beam in order to determine the fracture behaviour of the concrete in tension. In this paper, in order to understand actual behaviour of the concrete beam, relevant theory is studied from literature. A finite element analysis is done subsequently to simulate behaviour of the beam. For this, a two dimensional prototype model of the experimentally tested beam is modelled and analysed in a finite element based software. The load-displacement response of the beam is obtained and compared with the experimental results. In order to carry out mesh refinement study the prototype model is discretized into three different mesh sizes as a coarse, medium and a fine mesh. Further, the influence of shape of stress-displacement relations on the load-displacement response is also discussed. The absolute stress-displacement curve for concrete given by Petersson is approximated by 1-segment, 2-segment and a 4-segment curve. Three different approximations for the shape of stress-displacement relations are used to evaluate the sensitivity of the degree of the curve.