Impact of Aggregates on Concrete Fracture Analysis Based on the Ergodicity oF Mesh Refinement

Abstract

This work extends a stochastic procedure for modeling brittle failure using virtual elements (VEs) and nonlinear interface elements (IEs), adapted to heterogeneous materials with inclusions such as concrete. Based on the ergodicity of randomly generated polyhedral mesh refinement, the approach simulates tortuous crack propagation in concrete with aggregates under Mode II fracture. We study the three-point bending test, systematically varying mesh density and the random arrangement of aggregates, and analyze sensitivity to constitutive parameters such as elastic modulus and fracture energy. The results show that ergodic averaging over mesh refinements and aggregate configurations accurately reproduces the structural response, and that the interaction between these two sources of randomness improves the model’s predictive robustness.