Fracture Toughness of a Center Notched Concrete Disk

Purpose of this paper is to determine the appropriate size of a center notched disk specimen for mode I fracture toughness . For this purpose, mode I test results with various sizes of center notched disk were compared with the RILEM three-point-bend test ones. Compressive strength of concrete used in this paper was 44.9 MPa. Diameters of 200, 300, 400 mm, thickness of 75, 100, 125 mm, and notch length ratios an of 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 were used for the mode I disk test. Also, diameter of 300mm thickness of 100mm, and notch length ratios a/R of 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 were used for the mixed mode disk test. Mixed mode stress intensity factors were investigated by changing notch angles for the disk specimen. Stress intensity factors of a center notched disk were calculated with the various methods for comparison. From the test results, mode I fracture toughness calculated from the disk specimen with diameter of 300 mm, thickness of Inn and notch length ratio a/R of 0.5 was very similar to the RILEM three-point-bend test ones. And it is verified that stress intensity factors for mixed mode can be easily calculated with the disk specimen.