Abstract
Natural stones like marbles are often employed as façade panels to externally cover buildings. These natural materials tend to exhibit a quasi-brittle nonlinear fracture behaviour which, conversely to concrete counterpart, has much less been studied in the literature. In the present paper, an experimental campaign on the so-called red Verona marble is carried out, and the results are discussed together with some previously published results on the white Carrara marble. The analysis of the two marbles as a whole allows us to discuss size effect and to point out the need for additional parameters in order to describe their fracture behaviour. The study focuses on a two-parameter model which accounts for a characteristic material length. A quantitative correlation between material microstructure features, obtained from thin sections technique, and the characteristic material length is proposed.
Highlights
Quasi-brittle materials are typically characterized by a stable nonlinear load-deflection response followed by an unstable fracture
Like calcite marbles used for building claddings [14, 15], often exhibit a quasi-brittle mechanical behaviour [16, 17] which, to concrete counterparts, has much less been investigated despite the fact that, under different deteriorating in-service actions, fracture behaviour might significantly affect structural failure
The study focuses on a two-parameter model which accounts for a characteristic material length
Summary
Quasi-brittle materials are typically characterized by a stable nonlinear load-deflection response followed by an unstable fracture Such a behaviour is generally attributed to the development of a finite-size process zone ahead of the crack tip. Other theories are available in the literature to describe experimental size-dependent fracture data These theories (e.g. theory of critical distances [3,4], finite fracture mechanics [5], cohesive crack models [6], size effect laws [7,8,9,10], non-local stress failure criteria [11], and crack extension resistance curves [12]) are characterized by a fil rouge, that is to say, the near-crack tip stress field and/or the fracture toughness is described by means of multi-parameter approaches. A tentative quantitative correlation between material microstructure features, obtained from thin sections technique, and the characteristic material length is presented
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