Abstract
Preoccupation for improving concrete infrastructure durability has become just as important as safety issues and concrete cracking plays a key role for durability. Despite various studies carried out in the last decade, very little information regarding the propagation of cracking under sustained loading and the physical mechanisms involved is available. In order to address this problem, an experimental study on the propagation of a macrocrack under sustained loading in steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams was completed. This article describes the flexural creep tests carried out on 0.7 m long beams. The evolution of the deflection, the crack width and the crack propagation were measured until the specimens’ failure. The results permit the assessment of the influence of initial CMOD and sustained load levels on crack propagation, damage evolution, and the mechanisms leading to the rupture of the beams. In addition, behaviour of beams in sealed and drying hydric conditions with an identical loading history are compared to determine the influence of hydric conditions. The results show that crack propagation governs the failure mechanisms of SFRC beams subjected to high sustained load levels.
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