Equivalent maturity for ambient temperature effect on fracture parameters of site-casting dam concrete

Abstract

This paper presents the influence of ambient temperature on the fracture properties of site-casting (or cast in-situ in other words) dam concrete. By virtue of the mixing tower system in the site of a super-high arch dam, the wedge splitting specimens with the maximum aggregate size of 150mm were poured in summer and in winter seasons, respectively. The variations of fracture parameters obtained by experiment with different age were revealed, and the results show that the dam concretes poured in summer and in winter seasons show much difference in fracture characteristics at the age of 28days, however, with the increase of age, the difference in fracture behavior decreased, and was almost zero at the age of 180days. On top of that, by introducing the concept of equivalent maturity, the relationships between fracture parameters of site-casting dam concrete and equivalent maturity were obtained.