Deterministic and Statistical Size Effect in Plain Concrete

Abstract

The numerical FE investigations of a deterministic and stochastic size effect in concrete beams of a similar geometry under three point bending were performed within an elasto-plasticity with a non-local softening. The FE analyses were carried out with four different sizes of notched and unnotched beams. Deterministic calculations were performed with a uniform distribution of the tensile strength. In turn, in stochastic calculations, the tensile strength took the form of random correlated spatial fields described by a truncated Gaussian distribution. In order to reduce the number of stochastic realizations without losing the calculation accuracy, Latin hypercube sampling was applied. The numerical outcomes were compared with the size effect law by Bažant and by Carpinteri.