On simulating impact fracture in high-strength concrete using GraFEA

In this work, we use a recently-formulated Graph-based Finite-Element Analysis (GraFEA) framework developed for modeling deformation and non-local fracture in quasi-brittle materials to simulate the fracture response of high-strength concrete (HSC) samples under impact loads. By fitting the material parameters in the theory to match a macroscopic force-displacement response obtained from a three-point bending experiment conducted under quasi-static conditions, we show that the GraFEA computational method is able to independently validate the experimentally-determined impulse response, obtained from impact experiments conducted under various initial impact speeds imposed by a drop-weight on HSC samples that are 6 to 7 orders of magnitude higher than the quasistatic tests. Furthermore, the GraFEA-based FEM simulations are also able to reproduce experimental crack propagation speeds in a HSC sample under different initial impact speeds to good accord.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.