FRANCE-U.S. WORKSHOP ON STRAIN LOCALIZATION AND SIZE EFFECT DUE TO CRACKING AND DAMAGE

The workshop of the above title took place in Paris, France where 36 invitees made presentations followed by extensive discussions. The themes covered at the workshop are discussed and are as as follows: observation and measurement of damage and localization; micromechanics of fracture and micro-macro relaionships; stability, bifurcation, and localization; nonlocal models, and localization limiters and size effect. Although it would not be possible formulate to conclusions acceptable to all, certain views appeared to reflect a broad consensus. In static, time-independent modeling of the tensile fracture of concrete and geomaterials, the structural size effect is widely regarded as the key macroscopic consequence of fracture, and the most important yardstick for the evaluation of various theories. It is noted that the knowledge of the effect of the loading rate due to viscoplastic behavior, and especially the general effect of load and deformation history is rather limited. These and other observations are discussed.