Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

Spring 5-31-1990

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

First Advisor

Methi Wecharatana

Second Advisor

M. Ala Saadeghvaziri

Third Advisor

Jay N. Meegoda

Abstract

This study is aimed at evaluating the failure characteristics of concrete in the notched beam configuration. In general, for Mode I failure tension is commonly encountered. However, in the area of high shear stress, it remains to be a question whether shear or Mode II failure exists. Researches carried out in the past decade confirmed the existance of both Mode I and Mode II failure. It is the objective of this investigation to clarify this failure characteristics using FRANC an interactive fracture mechanics software.

The investigation carried out in this study used the experimental results of Bazant and Pfeiffer (3) and Jeng and Shah (5) as the input data to the FRANC software. Stress analysis, stress intensity factors, the load-CMOD, and the load CMSD were analyzed and plotted and compared with the experimental data. The results indicate that a good correlation (89% accuracy) between FRANC's results and the experimental data. Also observed in this study are the effects of specimen size, notch depth, and notch off-set distance on the P-CMOD in the single notch specimen reported by Jeng and Shah (5). These effects are less pronounced for the double notch specimen of Bazant and Pfeiffer (3).

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