Modeling fracture of concrete with a simplified meshless discrete crack method

Abstract

Fracture in quasi-brittle materials such as concrete is accompanied by excessive cracking. Numerical analysis of concrete fracture is either based on smeared crack method or discrete crack method. Smeared crack methods are computationally less challenging than the discrete crack method. However, this simplicity brings loss of accuracy. We propose a novel simplified and highly efficient meshless method for discrete cracks and study fracture of concrete. The method exploits the advantages of smeared crack method and maintains the accuracy of discrete crack method. The discrete crack is modeled by set of discrete crack segments placed through the entire domain of influence of a node. We use Neo-Hooke material in the bulk material and a cohesive zone model once discrete cracks occur. We demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed meshless discrete crack method for complex problems involving mode-I and mixed mode failure.