ABSTRACT
Finite element modeling of fracture is easy and accurate only if the fracture runs along the mesh lines. Modeling of fracture by discrete line cracks is not the only viable approach. Another approach, which has gained wide popularity in finite element analysis of concrete structures and is used almost exclusively in design practice, is to represent fracture in a smeared manner. In this approach, introduced by Y. R. Rashid, infinitely many parallel cracks of infinitely small opening are imagined to be continuously distributed over the finite element. This can be conveniently modeled by reducing the material stiffness and strength in the direction normal to the cracks after the peak strength of the material has been reached. Such changes of the stiffness matrix are relatively easy to implement in a finite element code, and, hence, the appeal of smeared cracking.
