Abstract
The response ranges of three principal mechanical parameters were measured following cyclic compressive loading of three types of concrete specimen to a pre-defined number of cycles. Thus, compressive strength, compressive modulus of elasticity, and maximum compressive strain were studied in (i) plain, (ii) steel-fiber-reinforced, and (iii) polypropylene-fiber-reinforced high-performance concrete specimens. A specific procedure is presented for evaluating the residual values of the three mechanical parameters. The results revealed no significant variation in the mechanical properties of the concrete mixtures within the test range, and slight improvements in the mechanical responses were, in some cases, detected. In contrast, the scatter of the mechanical parameters significantly increased with the number of cycles. In addition, all the specimens were scanned by means of high resolution computed tomography, in order to visualize the microstructure and the internal damage (i.e., internal micro cracks). Consistent with the test results, the images revealed no observable internal damage caused by the cyclic loading.
Highlights
Progressive improvement of the compressive properties of concrete have led to the development of more and more slender concrete structures worldwide, resulting in a progressive reduction of component weight
This paper focused on study of the variation of the mechanical parameters of three concrete mixtures with a number of cycles: plain, steel-fiber-reinforced, and polypropylene-fiber-reinforced high-performance concrete (HPC, steel-fiber-reinforced high-performance concrete (SFHPC), and PFHPC, respectively)
The results described above revealed that the fibers had an influence on the fatigue behavior of compressive strain of concrete by number of cycles in the case of the L-Series, with a maximum the specimens, which seemed to be related to the microstructure of the mixture
Summary
Progressive improvement of the compressive properties of concrete have led to the development of more and more slender concrete structures worldwide, resulting in a progressive reduction of component weight. Fatigue analysis has focused on the study of fatigue life, i.e., the number of cycles that the specimen can withstand before collapse [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10], and almost no attention has been paid to how the mechanical parameters vary with the number of cycles [11,12,13,14] Those variations represent an interesting approach to fatigue analysis, as most structures are subjected to a combination of cyclic loads, resulting in mechanical degradation, and extreme static loading.
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