Analysis of localized fracture in 3D reinforced concrete structures using volume averaging technique

In this paper, the propagation of localized damage in reinforced concrete structures is investigated in three dimensional domain. A mesoscale approach is employed whereby the material is perceived as a composite medium comprising two constituents, i.e. concrete matrix and steel reinforcement. The response at the macroscale is obtained via a homogenization procedure that incorporates the volume averaging. After the onset of cracking in concrete, …