STOCHASTIC FINITE ELEMENT MODELING OF MULTIPLE CRACKING IN FIBER REINFORCED CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITES

Multiple cracking behavior and failure of SHCC material in uniaxial tensile tests is analyzed by means of stochastic finite elements, where material properties are assigned as random fields over the analyzed domain. Individual cracks are represented using the crack band approach. The effect of crack bridging provided by fibers is implemented by hardening-softening cohesive law. Results show that the proposed approach can qualitatively reproduce effects of tensile test configuration on the measured response of SHCC and support the hypothesis that these effects can be attributed to inhomogenity of the cementitious matrix and fiber dispersion.