Fatigue Properties of Dynamically Loaded Self-Compacting Concrete

Abstract

Many civil structures are subjected to dynamic loading with load cycles exceeding 100.000 to 100.000.000 or more depending on the type of structure. At such high amounts of load cycles concrete can fail due to fatigue damage. The phenomenon is well understood and documented in the literature for traditional concrete. It remains unclear whether these conclusions can be transferred to self-compacting concrete (SCC), due to changes in concrete composition, decrease in the size of the coarse aggregates in combination with the addition of filler and superplasticizer. For this paper several reinforced concrete beams with varying reinforcement ratios are subjected to dynamic loads in a four point bending rig until failure. The imposed stress levels for the dynamic loading range between 0,80fcc and 0,85fcc. The main conclusions of the experimental tests are (1) clearly different failure mechanisms determine the static and dynamic loading for a single type of beam, (2) SCC appears to have a somewhat lower shear resistance during fatigue, (3) the differences in flexural degradation between SCC and TC beams are rather small.