This volume emphazises the most recent advances in fracture mechanics as specifically applied to steel bar reinforced concrete. Fracture mechanics has been applied to plain and fibre reinforced concrete with increasing success over recent years. This workshop extended these concepts to steel bar reinforced and pre-stressed concrete design. Particularly for high strength concrete, which is a very brittle material, and in the case of large structural members, the application of fracture mechanics appears to be very useful for improving the present design rules. The pre-eminent participants at the Turin workshop contributed extensive expert opinions in four selected areas for which a rational approach, using fracture mechanics, could introduce variations into the concrete design codes: size effects; anchorage and bond; minimum reinforcement for elements in flexure; and shear resistance. The 23 chapters logically address these themes and demonstrate the unique ability of fracture mechanics to capture all the experimentally observed characteristics. The book is primarily directed to the researchers in universities and institutions and will be of value to consultants and engineering companies.

Alberto Carpinteri is Professor of Structural Mechanics at the Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Among his many awards he is Past President of the European Structural Integrity Society and of the International Association of Fracture Mechanics for Concrete and Concrete Structures; a Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Member of the American Academy of Mechanics; Recipient of RILEM's Robert l'Hermite Medal, and of the JSME Medal of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Size effect in quasi-brittle micro-heterogeneous structures: deterministic and statistical theories. Size effects in concrete structures. Stress-crack opening relation and size effect in concrete. Size effects in two compact test specimen geometries. Scaling in tensile and compressive fracture of concrete. Prediction of fracture of concrete and fibre reinforced concrete by the R-curve approach. Size effect in concrete structures: an R-curve approach. Modelling crack toughness curves in fibre-reinforced cement composites. Fracture mechanics evaluation of anchorage bearing capacity in concrete. Anchor bolts modelled with fracture mechanics. Simulation of bond and anchorage: usefulness of softening fracture mechanics. Analysis of steel-concrete bond with damage mechanics: nonlinear behaviour and size effect. Splitting failure of a strain-softening material due to bond stress. Fracture mechanics evaluation of minimum reinforcement in concrete structures. Minimum reinforcement requirements for concrete flexural members. Fracture mechanics application to reinforced concrete members in flexure. Role of compressive fracture energy of concrete on the failure behaviour of reinforced beams. Shear crack stability along a precast reinforced concrete joint. Shear strength of reinforced concrete beams. Effect of fibre modified fracture properties on shear resistance of reinforced mortar and concrete beams. Failure modes of longitudinally reinforced beams. Reinforced concrete beam behaviour under cyclic loadings. An expert system approach to applying fracture mechanics to reinforced concrete. Index.