Multilevel Determination of Mechanical Fracture Parameters of Concrete from Wedge Splitting Tests

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a part of the research focused on the development of a complex experimental–computational methodology for determining the values of mechanical fracture parameters of concrete independent of the specimen size and geometry. For this purpose, laboratory wedge splitting tests were carried out on specimens of three different sizes with two different notch depths. Based on the experimentally obtained responses of the test specimens, the fracture mechanical parameters of all specimens were identified by inverse analysis. The obtained parameters were used in the numerical simulation of the tests and analysed in terms of their dependence on the size of the initial uncracked ligament