International Journal of Fracture 94: 267–284, 1998.

© 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Mixed mode fracture of concrete under proportional and

nonproportional loading

J.C. GÁLVEZ, M. ELICES, G.V. GUINEA and J. PLANAS

Departamento de Ciencia de Materiales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ETS de Ingenieros de Caminos,
Ciudad Universitaria, 28040-Madrid, Spain. e-mail: jgalvez@mater.upm.es

Received 13 July 1998; accepted in revised form 17 December 1998

Abstract. A novel testing procedure for mixed mode crack propagation in concrete is presented: four point
bend of notched beams under the action of two independent force actuators. In contrast to classical procedures,
this method allows nonproportional loading and crack trajectory modifications by changing the action of one
actuator. Different experimental crack trajectories, under mixed mode and nonproportional loading, are presented
together with the corresponding curves of load-CMOD and load-displacement. The tests were performed for three
homotetic specimen sizes and two mixed mode loading conditions. The results are useful for checking the accuracy
of mixed mode fracture analytical and numerical models. The models should predict the crack trajectory and a
complete group of experimental records of load and displacements on several control points in the specimen.

Keywords: Concrete, fracture, mixed mode, numerical analysis.

Abbreviations: ASTM – American Society for Testing and Materials; CMOD – crack mouth opening displace-
ment; LEFM – linear elastic fracture mechanics; MTS – maximum tangential stress; PMMA – polymethil-
methacrylate; RILEM – Réunion Internationale des Laboratoires d’Essais et de Recherches sur les Materiaux
et les Constructions

1. Introduction

Mixed mode fracture of concrete is a complex problem, even in two dimensions. During
the last two-decades much work has been done to develop analytical and numerical tools
to describe the initiation and propagation of the cracks in mixed mode I/II in concrete struc-
tures. A relatively large number of experimental results of crack initiation and propagation in
mixed mode on notched beams are based on the Iosipescu geometry (Iosipescu, 1967; Arrea
and Ingraffea, 1982; Bažant and Pfeiffer, 1986; Biolzi, 1990; Bocca et al., 1991; Schlangen,
1993a,b; Swartz and Taha, 1990) and the results developed in the RILEM 89-FMT Com-
mittee (Ballatore et al., 1990; Bocca et al., 1990), among others. Other sets of experimental
results are based on the three point bend of notched beams with eccentric notch: (Guo et
al., 1994a,b; Jenq and Shah, 1988; Swartz et al. 1988a), among others. Moreover, there are
experimental results developed on notched cylinders (Barr et al., 1989) and double notched
prismatic specimens (Bažant and Pfeiffer, 1986; Schlangen, 1993a; Barr and Deradj, 1990;
Davies, 1989). Other important sets of tests have been developed by (Nooru-Mohamed, 1992;
Nooru-Mohamed and Van Mier, 1992; Hassanzadeh, 1992) on notched specimens partially
cracked in tension. The advance has been important, but some difficulties still remain. The
Iosipescu geometry and the nonsymmetric three point bend tests give trajectories of the crack
that are easily guessed from kinematic considerations and predicted within the wide scatter
of the results by various models. This means that the performance of the models cannot be

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268 J.C. Gálvez et al.
Table 1. Concrete prismatic specimens in each batch.

Sample Depth Length Thickness Number of Objective

mm mm mm specimens

D1 75 340 50 8 MP and MM
D2 150 675 50 4 MM
D3 300 1350 50 2 MM

MP: Mechanical properties; MM: Mixed mode tests.

assessed from crack path predictions for these geometries. The tests of the Delft group (Nooru-
Mohamed, 1992; Nooru-Mohamed and Van Mier, 1992) led to overlapping several cracks.
Then, there are confusing aspects: for example, (Swartz et al. 1988b) have concluded from
their tests that mode II fracture energy is eight to ten times larger than mode I fracture energy,
and (Bažant and Pfeiffer, 1985) thirty times larger.
The numerical aspects of the cohesive crack model, developed by Hillerborg and co-
workers (Hillerborg et al., 1976) for mode I fracture of concrete, have been included in finite
element codes (Červenka, 1994; Xie and Gerstle, 1996; Reich et al., 1993; Valente, 1995)
as well as in boundary element codes (Saleh and Aliabadi, 1995; Saleh and Aliabadi, 1996).
In these works it is assumed that the crack grows in the direction normal to the maximum
principal stress, the MTS criterion (Erdogan and Sih, 1963). This hypothesis has been verified
for materials of almost linear elastic behaviour (Gálvez et al., 1996), but it needs to be verified
for mortar and concrete with more involved trajectories of the cracks.
The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel testing procedure for mixed mode crack
propagation on concrete, under nonproportional loading. This procedure can provide a whole
range of crack trajectories, useful information as a benchmark for numerical codes devoted to
prediction of crack trajectories and fracture loads.
Such procedures were developed for materials with an elastic linear behaviour (Gálvez et
al., 1996). The purpose of this contribution is to extend this testing procedure to quasibrittle
materials, more specifically to concrete and mortar, and to provide additional experimental
information on mixed mode fracture of concrete: crack trajectories, load-displacement and
load-CMOD curves that may help research in this field. The set of tests has been developed for
geometrically similar specimens of three sizes. Moreover it has been found that even though
fracture is actually nonlinear, the crack path can be approximated by that predicted by LEFM.

2. Experimental program

2.1. N EW TYPE OF TEST ON MIXED MODE FRACTURE OF CONCRETE AND MORTAR

Figure 1a shows the geometry of the test specimens and the loading of the testing procedure.
Forces P1 and P2 are supplied by independent force actuators, which permits nonproportional
loading of the specimen when properly controlled. Different combinations of P1 and P2
provide different trajectories of the crack. In this work, stable tests were achieved by applying
P1 through a servocontrolled testing machine running under CMOD control and P2 was set
to a spring boundary condition (Figure 1b), using a servocontrolled actuator.

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