Distinct Fracture Patterns in Construction Steels for Reinforced Concrete under Quasistatic Loading— A Review

Fernando Suárez,Jaime Gálvez,José Atienza,David Cendón

doi:10.3390/met8030171

Fernando Suárez, Jaime Gálvez + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/met8030171

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Journal: Metals	Publication Date: Mar 9, 2018
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Jaén, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Abstract

Steel is one of the most widely used materials in construction. Nucleation growth and coalescence theory is usually employed to explain the fracture process in ductile materials, such as many metals. The typical cup–cone fracture pattern has been extensively studied in the past, giving rise to numerical models able to reproduce this pattern. Nevertheless, some steels, such as the eutectoid steel used for manufacturing prestressing wires, does not show this specific shape but a flat surface with a dark region in the centre of the fracture area. Recent studies have deepened the knowledge on these distinct fracture patterns, shedding light on some aspects that help to understand how damage begins and propagates in each case. The numerical modelling of both fracture patterns have also been discussed and reproduced with different approaches. This work reviews the main recent advances in the knowledge on this subject, particularly focusing on the experimental work carried out by the authors.

Highlights

Steel is, with concrete, the most extended material in construction and civil engineering works.Its strength and ductility make it of special interest when addressing structural safety issues, since it enables stress distribution with adjacent elements, allowing a higher amount of energy to dissipate before failure
The following results correspond to two steels that are representative of both mentioned fracture patterns
A review of the recent advances made on the study of two more usual fracture patterns observed in construction steels has been carried out, paying special attention to the material behaviour after maximum loading and the analysis of the fracture surfaces

Summary

Introduction

With concrete, the most extended material in construction and civil engineering works.Its strength and ductility make it of special interest when addressing structural safety issues, since it enables stress distribution with adjacent elements, allowing a higher amount of energy to dissipate before failure. The mechanical characterization of these types of materials is usually reduced to obtaining their elastic parameters, elastic modulus E and Poisson’s ratio ν These values are generally obtained by means of a tensile test, which is standardised by EN ISO 6892 [1], and allows obtaining with precision the stress–strain diagram up to the maximum loading point. Difficulties arise when the behaviour after the maximum load point needs to be defined, which usually leads to neglecting that information from the test This final part of the stress–strain diagram is, of great interest since it is directly related to the maximum energy that can be absorbed by a structural element before collapsing, which goes together with the structural safety. This may help, for instance, to distinguish between accidental damage and induced damage

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