Applications of Fracture Mechanics to Reinforced Concrete (Hardcover)

This volume emphazises the most early 1990s advances in fracture mechanics as specifically applied to steel bar reinforced concrete. Fracture mechanics has been applied to plain and fibre reinforced concrete with increasing success over recent years. This workshop extended these concepts to steel bar reinforced and pre-stressed concrete design. Particularly for high strength concrete, which is a very brittle material, and in the case of large structural members, the application of fracture mechanics appears to be very useful for improving the present design rules. The participants at the Turin workshop contributed expert opinions in four selected areas for which a rational approach, using fracture mechanics, could introduce variations into the concrete design codes: size effects; anchorage and bond; minimum reinforcement for elements in flexure; and shear resistance. The 23 chapters logically address these themes and demonstrate the unique ability of fracture mechanics to capture all the experimentally observed characteristics.