ABSTRACT
Abstract The main characteristics of the behaviour of concrete structural elements are reproduced through their discretization into a set of elastic brittle springs. The dimensions of the considered specimens range from one to hundred times the size of the maximum diameter of the aggregate. The variety of typical behaviours is obtained, by the same modelling, within a statistical mechanics approach: the behaviour of complex systems results from the interaction of many, very simple, basic elements. A renormalization technique is applied to determine the characteristics (stiffness and strength) of the basic elements. Keywords: material chaos, concrete, discrete model, nonlinear analysis, numerical modelling.
