Temperature Effect on Mechanical Properties and Damage Identification of Concrete Structure

Abstract

Static and dynamic mechanical properties of concrete are affected by temperature effect in practice. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the corresponding influence law and mechanism. This paper demonstrates the variation of mechanical properties of concrete at temperatures from −20°C to 60°C. Temperature effects on cube compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, prism compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, and frequency are conducted and discussed. The results indicate that static mechanical properties such as compressive strength (cube and prism), splitting tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity have highly linear negative correlation with temperature; this law is also applied to the first order frequency of concrete slab. The coupling effect of temperature and damage on change rate of frequency reveals that temperature effect cannot be ignored in damage identification of structure. Mechanism analysis shows that variation of elastic modulus of concrete caused by temperature is the primary reason for the change of frequency.