Title: Cracking and Crushing in Prestressed Concrete Beams

Author(s): Federico Accornero, Renato Cafarelli, and Alberto Carpinteri

Publication: Structural Journal

Volume: 118

Issue: 2

Appears on pages(s): 101-109

Keywords: concrete cracking; concrete crushing; ductile-to-brittle transition; non-linear fracture mechanics; prestressed concrete; scale effects

Date: 3/1/2021

Abstract:
The cohesive/overlapping crack model represents an effective tool in the study of failure transition phenomena occurring in plain or reinforced concrete structures. In the present paper, this non-linear fracture mechanics model is applied to study the global structural behavior of prestressed concrete beams casted by means of pre-tensioning technique or, more generally, having a straight steel strand layout. In this context, a thorough analysis of scale effects is presented to investigate local mechanical instabilities such as snap-back and snap-through phenomena due to concrete cracking or crushing, highlighting the crucial role of the ductile-to-brittle transition in the design of prestressed concrete structural elements.