Numerical simulation of damage in cementitious materials using a modified approach to the multicutting technique

The Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics approach widely used for damage characterization of ductile materials cannot be accurately used for cementitious composites which undergo a substantial amount of localized microcracking prior to peak load. The Multicutting Technique offers a reasonably sound experimental means of obtaining the size of the damage zone for cementitious, concrete-like materials. The method, however, has many theoretical deficiencies and its sensitivity to experimental errors renders it occasionally unpredictable. The presented work is an attempt to study these deficiencies while providing a means of obtaining the size of the damage zone through the numerical simulation of the Multicutting Technique. Three modifications were made in an attempt to circumvent the deficiencies of the original technique: (1) Nonlinear axial elements are used to represent the localized strain-softening occurring near the cracktip in the introduced numerically based model. (2) A nonlinear crack opening profile is obtained rather than the linear relation assumed in the original theory. This crack opening profile is then used to obtain more adequate cohesive stress relations. (3) The stress redistribution factor is obtained and is found to be a function of the crack length as well as the location where the cut is performed. Results of the introduced model were found to be mesh and loading pattern independent, provided an adequately fine mesh is selected (size of elements {dollar}<{dollar} characteristic length) and a relatively small time step is used. Once the dependency on numerical parameters is eliminated with the proper choice of mesh configuration, time step and cohesive stress distribution function, the numerically simulated P-CMOD curve was very similar to the experimentally obtained curve. This similarity tends to validate, to a certain extent, the presented model as a sound, numerically based, means of assessing damage in cementitious composites.