Abstract
This paper provides an experimental investigation on the cracking process and residual mechanical properties of concrete after exposure to elevated temperatures. A total of 36 standard concrete prism specimens were tested after exposure to high temperatures of up to 600 °C. The failure modes, cracking process, residual mechanical properties, deformation characteristics and the strain distribution on the surface during the loading procedure were presented. The influences of exposure temperature and water–cement ratio (w/c) were interpreted. The digital image correlation (DIC) method was applied to quantitatively and visually characterize the development of cracking and relative displacement on the concrete surface. The findings suggest that the residual compressive strength and elastic modulus of the concrete decreases gradually with the increasing temperature, especially in the specimens with lower w/c ratio. The DIC technique provides an effective means to measure very precise and detailed information, including the crack opening and distribution of strain on the concrete surface.
Highlights
Concrete is one of the most widely used building materials, but it is vulnerable to explosive spalling at elevated temperatures caused by fire, explosion or furnaces nearby [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
The findings suggest that the residual compressive strength and elastic modulus of the concrete decreases gradually with the increasing temperature, especially in the specimens with lower w/c ratio
The axial compression tests on ordinary concrete were carried on using a servo-hydraulic testing
Summary
Concrete is one of the most widely used building materials, but it is vulnerable to explosive spalling at elevated temperatures caused by fire, explosion or furnaces nearby [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. DIC technology is widely used in many fields because of its characteristics such as full-field test, simple operation and low requirement for experimental environment [18,19,20,21,22,23] These tests are mainly done to study the complex deformation and crack development process of materials and components, which are not available in traditional measurement tools. An experimental investigation on the cracking process and residual mechanical properties of concrete after exposure to elevated temperatures was carried out, and a combination of the DIC technique and mechanical test were proven as a viable approach for the health monitoring of concrete. The influences of exposure temperature and water–cement ratio (w/c) were interpreted
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