Physical experiment and numerical simulation on effect of soundless cracking agent

In the present paper, the physical experiments and numerical simulations on the failure of concrete model were carried out to investigate the effect of SCA (soundless cracking agent). The test results show that the failure pattern of the concrete model with a single hole is not similar to the excavating marble, where a second crack initiated on the symmetric point after a crack formed in the model as commonly considered, but three main cracks formed in the model. In addition, the numerical results reproduced the whole process of the crack initiation, propagation, and coalescence.