ABSTRACT
Cementitiousmaterialsareonlyquasi-brittle.Aload-deflectioncurve obtainedfromanotchbendtestonasmallcementitiousbeamlooksvery similartothatofaductilemetal.Thispossibilityofductilebehaviourin anapparentlybrittlematerialisparadoxical.Notonlyaresmallbeams ductilebuttheyalsohavealargermodulusofrupture.Someoftheapparent increaseinstrengthcanbeexplainedbystatistics(seeChapter6),butthe differenceistoogreatforthisexplanationtobethecompleteanswer.To understandtheseparadoxeswemustmodelthefractureprocess.
