Influence of inertia and material properties on discrete simulation of dynamic fracture of concrete

Abstract

It is well known that the material resistance to fracture increases with increasing strain rate. For relatively slow strain rates, the response is strongly dependent on the material fracture properties such as material strength or fracture energy, whereas with further increase of loading rate, the loading force is getting influenced predominantly by the material inertia. The response of the material changes with strain rate in the sense of loading force as well as character of the crack pattern. The contribution is focused on simulations of fracture experiments at various strain rates. Dynamical concrete fracture is simulated using meso-scale discrete model, i.e. a system of interconnected discrete particles. Material properties in the model are randomly distributed within the volume domain. Similar to quasi-static loading rates, the material randomness influences the dynamic fracture as well. Deterministic and probabilistic simulations are compared and the influence of material parameters and their strain rate dependence are discussed.