Effect of a characteristic length on crack spacing in a reinforced concrete bar under tension

The paper presents quasi-static FE-simulations of the crack formation in a reinforced concrete bar without stirrups subject to tension. The material was modeled with a continuum smeared crack model using an elasto-plastic constitutive law. A linear Rankine criterion with isotropic softening and associated flow rule was adopted in a tensile regime. To ensure the mesh-independency, the softening parameter was enhanced by a characteristic length of micro-structure by means of a non-local theory. Attention was laid to the effect of a different characteristic length of micro-structure and initial bond-slip stiffness on the spacing of localized zones.