ABSTRACT
Particle Methods (PM) were originally introduced to simulate the behavior of discontinuous media. More recently Particle Methods have been enhanced and used in the study of fracture analysis of non-homogeneous continuous media, for example concrete. In the adopted approach concrete is regarded as a skeleton of aggregate particles of various sizes, almost in direct contact with each other and the cement matrix is considered to act as a filler enabling the structure to be able to carry tensile stresses. The case study described shows the applicability of the PM developed to analyze plain concrete structures subjected to shear and tension loading. The importance of moment transmission through contact is discussed and several contact models are compared.
