Abstract
Tensile strength is one of the important mechanical properties of concrete, but it is difficult to measure accurately due to the brittle nature of concrete in tension. The three widely used test methods for measuring the tensile strength of concrete each have their shortcomings: the direct tension test equipment is not easy to set up, particularly for alignment, and there are no standard test specifications; the tensile strengths obtained from the test method of splitting tensile strength (American Society for Testing and Materials, ASTM C496) and that of flexural strength of concrete (ASTM C78) are significantly different from the actual tensile strength owing to mechanisms of methodologies and test setup. The objective of this research is to develop a new concrete tensile strength test method that is easy to conduct and the result is close to the direct tension strength. By applying the strut-and-tie concept and modifying the experimental design of the ASTM C78, a new concrete tensile strength test method is proposed. The test results show that the concrete tensile strength obtained by this proposed method is close to the value obtained from the direct tension test for concrete with compressive strengths from 25 to 55 MPa. It shows that this innovative test method, which is precise and easy to conduct, can be an effective alternative for tensile strength of concrete.
Highlights
Tensile strength is an important mechanical property of concrete, its value accounts only for 7–15% of its compressive strength [1,2,3]
Given the difficulty of reflecting the actual tensile strength of concrete with existing methods, this study proposes a new test method for overcoming the shortcomings of the above three methods
The actual values of the concrete compressive strength (Table 5) for the strut-and-tie beam were used for interpolation with the tensile strength results from the ABAQUS to obtain the value of tensile strength
Summary
Tensile strength is an important mechanical property of concrete, its value accounts only for 7–15% of its compressive strength [1,2,3]. Ignorance towards the tensile strength of concrete may lead to the problems of serviceability and durability and it makes tensile strength an important parameter of design. There are three common methods for measuring the tensile performance of the concrete, namely, the direct tension test, the splitting tensile test, and the flexural test. Each of these testing methods produces different results for the concrete in tension. The applicability of this test is limited Both of splitting tensile tests and flexural tests are indirect methods of measuring the tensile strength of concrete, and owing to this they are not reflecting the actual results and overestimate the tensile strength of concrete [7]
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