Damage and crack modeling in single-edge and double-edge notched concrete beams

The numerical modeling of damage and crack propagation in concrete and conc rete structures has evolved considerably in the past years. In this contrib ution, a higher order continuum model is used to model the failure behavior of single-edge notched (SEN) and double-edge notched (DEN) concrete beams loaded in four-point-shear, Different types of boundary conditions, i.e. wi th freely rotating, fixed or constrained loading supports, are investigated and the experimentally observed curved crack paths are compared with the n umerical simulations. The influence of the ratio of the compressive strengt h and the tensile strength is scrutinized and its relation with the failure mechanism is investigated. It is shown that an isotropic gradient-enhanced damage model permits to obtain a good agreement between experimental resul ts and numerical simulations. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.