19792

Interpretation of Tensile Softening in Concrete, Using Fractal Geometry

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Concrete is a heterogeneous material with a wide variety of usage in structural design. Concrete under tension exhibits strain softening, i.e.. a negative slope in the stress-deformation diagrams. Different softening curves have been proposed in the literature to interpret this phenomenon. In current research, a new softening curve for concrete has been proposed by using the newly introduced concept offractal geometry. This new softening curve is denominated a יQuasi-fractalי softening curve and consists of two parts, a linear portion at the beginning and an exponential portion in the rest of the curve. A comparison of a "Quasi-fractal" softening curve with a set of proposed experimental softening curves has been performed, which reveals good agreement.

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