Concrete is the worldwide most utilized construction material because of its very good performance, forming ability, long-term durability, and low costs. Concrete is a brittle material prone to cracking. Extensive cracking may impact durability and performance over time considerably. The addition of a small amount of carbon nanotubes (CNT) increases the concrete’s overall electrical conductivity, enabling internal structure...

The paper is aimed at accurately predicting the discrete fracture process in concrete specimens under complex stress states in two dimensional (2D) simulations. Plain concrete specimens subjected to Montevideo splitting test (MVD) were used for consideration due to non-negligible shear stresses impact in this type of test. In order to reflect the heterogeneous nature of the concrete, the meso-structure of the samples was included...

The paper describes an experimental and numerical study of size effect on concrete cylindrical specimens in splitting tensile test. Own experimental campaign was performed on specimens with 5 various diameters from D = 74, 105, 150, 192 and 250 mm with hardboard loading strips (distributed load according to standard methods) scaled proportionally to the specimen diameter. The crack opening-control system was applied to obtain the...

The paper describes numerical meso-scale results of a size effect on strength, brittleness and fracture in brittle materials like concrete. The discrete element method (DEM) was used to simulate the size effect during quasi-static splitting tension with the experimental-based meso-structure. The two-dimensional (2D) calculations were carried out on concrete cylindrical specimens with two diameters wherein two different failure...