Static compressive stress–strain behaviours of normal weight concrete at Arctic low temperatures

Abstract

This study experimentally investigated the compressive stress–strain (σ-ε) response of normal weight concrete (NWC) at low temperatures. 72 NWC cubes and 35 NWC prisms in three grades (C25, C45, and C55) were tested under axial compression at four temperature levels (T) of −80, −60, −30, and 20 °C. The failure modes, cubic and prism compressive strength (fcuT and fcT), modulus of elasticity (EcT), and peak strain (ε0T) were studied in detail. In addition, the low-temperature effects of specimen shapes on the compressive strength of NWC were studied. These experimental results reflected that dropping T from ambient temperature to −80 °C did not influence the peak strain of NWC, but significantly increased the fcuT, fcT, and EcT of C55 NWC by 47.3 %, 69.0 %, and 45.3 %, respectively. Finally, prediction equations were established to describe the low-temperature σ-ε constitutive model of NWC. The validations confirmed that the proposed low-temperature compressive constitutive models provided reasonable predictions on the σ-ε behaviours of NWC at a T range of −80 ∼ 20 °C.