A Dual-Limit-Erosion Approach to Estimate Fracture Zone of RC Slabs Subjected to High Velocity Impact Loads

This paper presents a novel erosion approach to reproduce fracture of concrete subjected to impact loadings. An erosion method is a numerical technique to remove highly distorted Lagrangian meshes which, if not deleted, tend to decrease the accuracy of numerical results obtained and often cause to terminate the calculation prematurely. Existing erosion criteria generally use a single thermo-mechanical variable for the deformation measure such as strain, stress tensor or damage. In this study we propose to utilize two measures to activate the erosion function with a view to better reproducing fracture zones of concrete by distinguishing the element deformation in compression or tension state. Test calculations in two and three dimensions are carried out to investigate the applicability of the proposed erosion method, and the numerical results are discussed with reference to available experimental data.