Experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of bridge area and its angularities on the failure mechanism of non-persistent crack in concrete-like materials

Experimental and discrete element methods were used to investigate the effects of distance between two preexisting cracks, bridge area (The length of the bridge area) and its angularities on the shear behaviour of bridge area. A punchthrough shear test was used to model the gypsum (concrete like) cracks under shear loading. Gypsum samples (concrete like) with dimension of 120 mm × 120 mm × 50 mm were prepared in the laboratory. Within the specimen model and near its four corners, four vertical notches were provided. Three different configuration systems were prepared for notches; i.e., paralell and in plane, inside echelon and outside echelon configuration systems, respectively. In these configurations, the length of cracks were taken as 2 cm, 4 cm and 6 cm based on the cracks configuration systems. Then, 9 specimens with different lengths of the bridge area and bridge area angles were prepared. Assuming a plane strain condition, special rectangular models were prepared with dimensions of 100 mm × 100 mm. similar to those for cracks configuration systems in the experimental tests i.e., 9 models with different lengths of the bridge area and bridge area angularities were prepared. The axial load was applied to the punch through the central portion of the model. This testing showed that the failure process was mostly governed by the lengths of the bridge area and bridge area angularities. The shear strengths of the specimens were related to the fracture pattern and failure mechanism of the discontinuities. It was shown that the shear behaviour of discontinuities is related to the number of the induced tensile cracks which are increased by increasing the lengths of the bridge area. The strength of samples decreases by increasing the crack length. Also, the outside echelon crack configuration system has the maximum value of strength while the inside echelon crack configuration system has the minimum value of specimen's tensile strength. The failure pattern and failure strength are similar in both methods i.e., the experimental testing and the numerical simulation methods.