CONVENTIONAL AND UNCONVENTIONAL APPROACHES FOR THE EVALUATION OF CRACK WIDTH IN FRC STRUCTURES

To evaluate crack patterns accurately, a conventional tension-stiffening approach has to be used. Accordingly, both the bridging of fibers and the bond-slip mechanisms of rebars are taken into account in a new block model. At one time, the model predicts the values of crack width, crack spacing, and crack depth. Moreover, it also leads to the definition of the so-called Golden Scaling Law. The practical interest of this unconventional approach lies in the possibility of predicting the crack pattern of large FRC structures without knowing the material performances, and testing prototypes of small size.