Method for Determining the Fracture Parameters of Fully Graded Dam Concrete

• Published in: Buildings (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 24
• Main Authors: Gao, Xiaofeng, Wu, Jiong, Zhou, Mengxia, Xu, Tao, Liu, Chunfeng, Tan, Yaosheng, Yang, Ning, Qiao, Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Accuracy; Concrete; Concrete aggregates; Crack propagation; fracture extreme theory; fracture parameters; Fracture testing; Fracture toughness; fully graded; Height; hydraulic structure; Load; Optimization; Parameters; Peak load; size effect; Stability analysis; Tensile strength; China
• ISSN: 2075-5309; 2075-5309
• DOI: 10.3390/buildings13010024

This paper describes a method for determining the initiation and unstable toughness of fully graded concrete of arbitrary specimen size. The method first predicts the initiation and peak loads of concrete specimens of any size, as well as crack length-to-height ratios based on the fracture test results of concrete specimens with limited sizes or crack length-to-height ratios. Then, combined with the fracture extreme theory, the fracture toughness of concrete with varying size or crack length-to-height ratios is determined. Finally, in order to verify the applicability of the method, it is used to calculate the fracture toughness of small aggregate concrete and fully graded concrete with different sizes or crack length-to-height ratios, and its prediction accuracy is evaluated through indices such as mean absolute percentage error, root mean square error and reliability index a15. The results show that the proposed method can meet the needs of practical engineering applications and can provide theoretical basis for the optimization of the fracture test method of fully graded concrete and the determination of fracture parameters in crack stability or propagation analysis.