ANALYSIS OF CRACKING OF RC BEAMS USING MESHLESS METHOD

Simulation of cracking in concrete is difficult using traditional numerical method. The meshless method has been widely used in fracture analysis. In this paper, cracks in concrete are divided into micro-cracks and macro-cracks. Different crack models are applied to each kind of cracks, respectively. The micro-cracks are represented by the smeared crack model. The macro cracks are represented by additional nodes and edges, with the convenience of adjusting node distribution in meshless method. The details on the simulation ofmacro-cracks'appearance and propagations are introduced. A numerical example shows that the present method can obtain the propagation of macro-cracks in concrete, together with the width of the cracks. Behavior which are intractable for the traditional finite element method, is observed.