ASSESSMENT OF THE CRACK BAND WIDTH LENGTHS IN THE MODELLING OF CRACKING IN CONCRETE WITH CONTINUUM DAMAGE MODELS

Abstract

Three criteria to estimate the crack bandwidth in fracture analyses using continuum
damage models are evaluated. The approach developed by Juarez et al. (2021) for
closed form solutions was implemented in the finite element method. Four cases
were studied, from which the load-displacement curves of the fracture process were
obtained. In these examples, the dissipated fracture energy was congruent with the
magnitude expected in all the cases studied. Some drawbacks like mesh
dependance and elastic energy locking occurred when using empirical formulas to
compute the crack bandwidth. From the results, recommendations are given to
compute crack bandwidths.