Abstract: The traditional fracture energy cracking criterion in a smeared cracking model, with the limitation of poor convergence and misjudgement of micro-cracks, is not applicable in the meso-level simulation of drying shrinkage micro-cracking in concrete. A modified smeared cracking model with an equivalent fracture energy cracking criterion is proposed and employed in the simulation of drying shrinkage micro-cracking in concrete specimens using an explicit method available in the commercial software ABAQUS. The micro-crack patterns from simulations of single-aggregate and random-aggregate-structure specimens agree well with the experimental results, showing the applicability of the modified smeared cracking model in modeling the meso-level drying shrinkage micro-cracking in concrete.