SENSITIVITY AND STABILITY OF PROGRESSIVE CRACKING IN PLAIN AND REINFORCED CEMENT COMPOSITES

Abstract A general formulation of the problem of sensitivity and stability of fracture in plain reinforced cement composites is presented. It is shown how such phenomena are subjected to very similar laws of scale. The stability of the fracturing process is due to a sufficiently high degree of redundancy in the system. The adjunctive elements, producing such redundancy, are usually fibre of bar reinforcements. Two particular cases are eventually considered: 1. 1. reinforced concrete beam element, subjected to bending moment; 2. 2. masonry wall, subjected to eccentric axial force. Their stability conditions are discussed with reference to progressive cracking.