Influence of different sizes of concrete and roller compacted concrete on double-K fracture parameters

Affected by physical properties of various components, characteristics and stress states of junction surface and other multiple factors, concrete, as a kind of multi-phase composite material, has complicated failure mechanism, thus making its fracture mechanism research difficult. But concrete has been widely used in engineering construction, so research on concrete fracture theory is of important realistic significance and construction value. This study discusses influence rule of specimen size and crack-depth ratio (?0/h) on doubleK fracture parameters (initial fracture toughness ini ICK and unstable fracture toughness un ICK ) and its size effects by using fracture test. Different sizes of concretes and roller compacted concrete (RCC) specimens are adopted to explore influence of specimen size on concrete double-K fracture parameters. Results reveal that initial fracture toughness ini ICK and unstable fracture toughness un ICK increase as specimen size enlarges, showing a size effect; besides, subcritical crack extends with the increase of specimen size. With regard to specimens with different crack-depth ratios, its unstable fracture toughness un ICK is unrelated to initial crack-depth ratio when crack-depth ratio is more than or equal to 0.4, while initial fracture toughness ini ICK is correlated with initial crack-depth ratio, which indicate that double-K fracture parameters can be considered as material constants describing concrete initial fracture, stable expansion and whole process of stability failure.