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Why are crack paths in concrete and mortar different from those in PMMA?

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Abstract

Experiments by Bazant and Pfeiffer on concrete and mortar seem to indicate that crack growth does not necessarily take place under Mode I conditions. In order to investigate the influence of the material, experiments were carried out in PMMA with similar geometry to that used by Bazant and Pfeiffer and a numerical simulation was made assuming Mode I crack growth. The experimental results for PMMA differ significantly from those in concrete and mortar, but agree closely with the result from the numerical simulations. The difference is believed to be explained by the fact that small-scale yielding conditions are not realized well enough in concrete and mortar. A fairly large region of small cracks probably influences the crack growth direction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Solid Mechanics, Lund Institute of Technology, Box 118, S-22100, Lund, Sweden

    Solveig Melin

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  1. Solveig Melin
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Melin, S. Why are crack paths in concrete and mortar different from those in PMMA?. Materials and Structures 22, 23–27 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02472691

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