Abstract
Due to expansion of corrosive products, cracks are nucleated around reinforcement in concrete. Initiation and propagation of these cracks are studied by experimentally and then analytically by the Boundary Element Method (BEM). The maximum circumferential stress criterion is applied to trace the crack extension of mixed-mode cracking. By employing the two-domain BEM, crack orientations are evaluated from the stress intensity factors of mode I and mode II. In BEM analysis, the ratios of stress intensity factors of mode I to mode II (KI/KII) are studied for the different types of crack patterns, which are observed as corrosion cracking.
