A fracture mechanics-based method for prediction of cracking of circular and elliptical concrete rings under restrained shrinkage

A new experimental method, utilizing elliptical ring specimens, is developed for assessing the likelihood of cracking and cracking age of concrete subject to restrained shrinkage. To investigate the mechanism of this new ring test, a fracture mechanics-based numerical approach is proposed to predict crack initiation in restrained concrete rings by using the R-curve method. It has been found that numerical results accord well with experimental results in terms of cracking ages for both circular and elliptical concrete rings, indicating that the proposed fracture mechanics-based numerical approach is reliable for analyzing cracking in concrete ring specimens subject to restrained shrinkage.