WATER FRACTURE INTERACTION IN CONCRETE .1. FRACTURE PROPERTIES

The fracture properties of concrete, viz, fracture toughness K-Ic and fracture energy G(F), reduce in the case of water-pressurized cracks w hen compared to dry cracks. In this paper results of fracture experime nts, wherein a crack is subjected to hydrostatic pressure, are present ed. These results indicate that, due to the effect of hydrostatic pres sure, the size of the process zone is reduced and values of fracture t oughness and fracture energy are also reduced significantly. Simple fu nctional relationships between fracture properties and hydrostatic pre ssure are derived and presented.