| Abstract: | At increasing external load, numerous microcracks propagate in discrete and successive stages within a body of concrete material according to the hierarchy of their tensile fracture strengths. Each microcrack propagation is conditional upon the statistical encounter of its associated fracture criterion. This paper shows the development of a statistical model for the progressive microcrack growth process within a body of concrete material at monotonic uniaxial loading in compression to ultimate failure. This model is formulated by using the Weibull's statistical theory of the strength of materials. The body of heterogeneous concrete material is simulated as a continuum comprising a large population of microscopic “weakest-link” isoenergy elements, each of which contains a unit-volume of representative micro-structural material which is linearly elastic, homogeneous and isotropic. The statistical modelling is derived from the stochastic evaluation of the tensile micro-fracture probabilities of these isoenergy elements at increasing global uniaxial compressive strains. |
