Fracture analysis of fiber reinforced concrete structures in the micropolar peridynamic analysis framework

- A meshless framework is introduced tmodel fiber reinforced concrete members.
- Micropolar peridynamic framework is successfully used in analyzing complex fracture mechanism in fiber reinforced concrete.
- The proposed analytical approach is able treproduce the complex crack propagation behavior.
- The modeling method is highly effective in representing the composite response of notched fiber reinforced beams.

In this study, an effective meshless model is proposed for fracture analysis of cracks in fiber reinforced concrete structures. The cementitious material is modeled using the micropolar peridynamic approach which is a generalized form of the bond-based peridynamics. A semi-discrete approach is incorporated in the micropolar peridynamic framework to study the effect of fiber reinforcement on the fracture analysis of cracks in cementitious materials. Therefore in the proposed fiber reinforced concrete modeling approach, the macro-scale fibers are randomly distributed in the cementitious material, and the forces developed in the fibers are indirectly applied to the cementitious material particles. This fracture analysis method used for fiber-cementitious material composites improves the computational efficiency. Furthermore in contrast to the finite element method, there is no need for mesh refinement and monitoring crack initiations/propagations in the proposed peridynamic framework. The crack development is an inherent feature of the proposed analysis framework. The accuracy of the proposed fracture analysis model is demonstrated through a comparison of available experimental results and simulation outcomes of fiber reinforced concrete beams with a notch at varying locations along the span.