Experimental study and constitutive model on complete stress-strain relations of plain concrete in uniaxial cyclic tension

Abstract

Due to the difficulties of testing concrete in direct uniaxial tension, only limited data are available. In this paper, the cyclic tensile test on the plain concrete was carried out. Based on the experimental data, the plasticity and damage evolution can be formulated with respect to elastic strain. A constitutive model for cyclic tensile behavior of concrete is proposed. The proposed model can describe the nonlinear post-peak performance of concrete in direct tension including hysteresis loops. Finally, a statistical damage model is derived to describe the microcrack growth of concrete under monotonic and cyclic tension loading. Results demonstrated that the microcracks growth of concrete under cyclic tension loading can be formulated by the Weibull cumulative distribution function.