Plain and Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Subjected to Cyclic Compressive Loading: Study of the Mechanical Response and Correlations with Microstructure Using CT Scanning

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.

[1]  Anush K. Chandrappa,et al.  Pore Structure Characterization of Pervious Concrete Using X-Ray Microcomputed Tomography , 2018 .

[2]  G. Ruiz,et al.  Influence of the pore morphology of high strength concrete on its fatigue life , 2018, International Journal of Fatigue.

[3]  G. Ruiz,et al.  Effect of the loading frequency on the compressive fatigue behavior of plain and fiber reinforced concrete , 2015 .

[4]  G. Ruiz,et al.  Model for the compressive stress–strain relationship of steel fiber-reinforced concrete for non-linear structural analysis , 2018, Hormigón y Acero.

[5]  D. González,et al.  Fiber geometrical parameters of fiber-reinforced high strength concrete and their influence on the residual post-peak flexural tensile strength , 2018 .

[7]  Stephen J. Foster,et al.  Fatigue Behavior of Steel-Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Beams , 2015 .

[8]  Jesús Mínguez,et al.  Residual modulus of elasticity and maximum compressive strain in HSC and FRHSC after high‐stress‐level cyclic loading , 2014 .

[9]  Paulo Cachim,et al.  Fatigue behavior of fiber-reinforced concrete in compression , 2002 .

[10]  T. Hsu Fatigue of Plain Concrete , 1981 .

[11]  C. Q. Li,et al.  Aggregate distribution in concrete with wall effect , 2003 .

[12]  D. González,et al.  Determination of dominant fibre orientations in fibre-reinforced high-strength concrete elements based on computed tomography scans , 2014 .

[13]  D. González,et al.  Postcracking residual strengths of fiber‐reinforced high‐performance concrete after cyclic loading , 2018 .

[14]  D. González,et al.  Pore morphology variation under ambient curing of plain and fiber-reinforced high performance mortar at an early age , 2019, Construction and Building Materials.

[15]  Aki Kallonen,et al.  Methods for fibre orientation analysis of X-ray tomography images of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) , 2016, Journal of Materials Science.

[16]  Jianting Zhou,et al.  Research on Fatigue Strain and Fatigue Modulus of Concrete , 2017 .

[17]  Jin-Keun Kim,et al.  Experimental study of the fatigue behavior of high strength concrete , 1996 .

[18]  G. Ruiz,et al.  CT-Scan study of crack patterns of fiber-reinforced concrete loaded monotonically and under low-cycle fatigue , 2018, International Journal of Fatigue.

[19]  Pathegama Gamage Ranjith,et al.  The Effect of Specimen Size on Strength and Other Properties in Laboratory Testing of Rock and Rock-Like Cementitious Brittle Materials , 2011 .

[20]  Jian-Guo Dai,et al.  X-ray computed tomography for pore-related characterization and simulation of cement mortar matrix , 2017 .

[21]  Alberto Carpinteri,et al.  Scale effects in uniaxially compressed concrete specimens , 1999 .

[22]  Jesús Mínguez,et al.  The Use of Computed Tomography to Explore the Microstructure of Materials in Civil Engineering: From Rocks to Concrete , 2017 .

[23]  Parviz Soroushian,et al.  Damage effects on concrete performance and microstructure , 2004 .

[24]  Zdenek P. Bazant,et al.  Theory of cyclic creep of concrete based on Paris law for fatigue growth of subcritical microcracks , 2014 .

[25]  S. Goel,et al.  Prediction of Mean and Design Fatigue Lives of Steel Fibrous Concrete Beams in Flexure , 2007 .

[26]  J. Hanan,et al.  Direct observation of void evolution during cement hydration , 2017 .

[27]  Shuaib H. Ahmad,et al.  Effect of Cyclic Loading on the Residual Tensile Strength of Steel Fiber–Reinforced High-Strength Concrete , 2015 .

[28]  Jesús Mínguez,et al.  Recent advances in the use of computed tomography in concrete technology and other engineering fields. , 2019, Micron.

[29]  Bhupinder Singh,et al.  Probability of fatigue failure of steel fibrous concrete , 2005 .

[30]  K. Peterson,et al.  Measurement of entrained air-void parameters in Portland cement concrete using micro X-ray computed tomography , 2018 .

[31]  Frank J. Vecchio,et al.  Concrete Damage under Fatigue Loading in Uniaxial Compression , 2017 .

[32]  A. Naaman,et al.  Fatigue characteristics of high performance fiber-reinforced concrete , 1998 .

[33]  S. Suresh Mechanics and micromechanisms of fatigue crack growth in brittle solids , 1990 .

[34]  Piervincenzo Rizzo,et al.  Ultrasonic inspection for the detection of debonding in CFRP-reinforced concrete , 2018 .

[35]  Pablo de la Fuente,et al.  El proceso de fatiga del hormigón y su influencia estructural , 2011 .

[36]  Alberto Carpinteri,et al.  Effect of specimen size on the dissipated energy density in compression , 2008 .

[37]  H. Cifuentes,et al.  Influence of the fiber content on the compressive low-cycle fatigue behavior of self-compacting SFRC , 2017 .