NUMERICAL STUDY OF FAILURE OF CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITE SPECIMENS IN MODIFIED COMPACT TENSION FRACTURE TEST

Abstract

The paper introduces a numerical analysis of failure process in specimens loaded in modified Compact Tension (CT) test configuration which are intended to be used for estimation of fracture parameters of quasi-brittle cement-based materials, including the extent of the fracture process zone. Specimen set (consisting of three sizes), designated to future testing in lab by X-ray imaging, was modelled in ATENA 2D finite element method software. Several variants of the tensile load eccentricity, the way of the load application and the initial crack length were considered in order to optimize the range of demanding experiments.