Cohesive Zone Modelling and the Fracture Process of Cement-Based Composites

Abstract

Computational modelling of quasi-brittle fracture in cement-based composites needs to cover both i) the damage caused by micro-fractured zones, referring to some nonlocal strain-stress relations, respecting quite different behaviour of such composites in tension and compression, and ii) the initiation and propagation of macroscopic cracks, exploiting the cohesive zone model, handled by some modification of the finite element technique, together with the discretization in time. A fundamental issue for such model is the introduction of a traction-separation (stress-displacement) relationship. This contribution pays particular attention to the design, identification and estimation of material parameters for the traction separation law suitable for predicting the deformation behaviour of samples of materials and structures.