FRACTURES MECHANICS IN THE DESIGN OF PRECAST CONNECTIONS

In the last ten years, the anchor-bolt problem has become a significant reference problem for fracture mechanics applications and remains a harsh test for each computational model. Therefore detail design cannot be easily carried out without experimental tests. The paper shows three different precast connections. They require a correct design approach defining the most convenient failure mode, a suitable choice of safety coefficients to prevent other failure mechanisms, the reliability of the predictive equations suggested in the literature and a wide experimental investigation to confirm the design choices. The aim of the contribution is to check the reliability of the available empirical equations describing the collapses induced by fracture mechanics, to adopt the most simple analytical models able to estimate the bearing capacity of the other acting mechanisms and discuss a conceptual design approach able to define a univocal failure hierarchy for these details that are too often disregarded.