Abstract
The paper reviews the size effect accompanying blunt fracture in brittle heterogeneous materials such as concrete and its applications to structural analysis and design. Various refinements of Bažant’s size effect law are summarized, and recent results of fracture tests of Bazant and Pfeiffer which establish measurements of concrete fracture energy on the basis of size effect are given. These test results confirm that fracture energy may be uniquely defined by size extrapolation to infinity. Furthermore, changes in the size effect caused by temperature and humidity are considered, a new formula for the effect of temperature on fracture energy is derived on the basis of the activation energy concept, and some of the test results of Prat and Bazant which determine the temperature and humidity effect on fracture energy are given. Finally, similitude of brittle failures due to blunt fracture is analyzed in three dimensions and it is shown that the same form of the size effect law as for two dimensions is applicable.
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