On the measurement of concrete fracture energy using three-point bend tests

The RILEM proposal for measuring the fracture energy (GF) of mortar and concrete by means of three-point bend tests on notched beams [1] aroused a vivid discussion on the size dependence of GF. The authors of this note, in 1992, summarized in three papers [2–4] their research on the RILEM proposal, placing special emphasis on several sources of energy dissipation during testing. In particular, it was shown that the dissipated energy at the very end of the test cannot be neglected for small specimens when tests are stopped at a reasonably small rotation.