Title: Crack Growth and fracture in Plain Concrete-Static Versus fatigue loading

Author(s): Stuart E. Swartz, Chen-Ming James Huang, and Kuo-Kuang Hu

Publication: Symposium Paper

Volume: 75

Issue:

Appears on pages(s): 47-70

Keywords: beams (supports); bending; concretes; cracking (fracturing; crack propagation; failure; fatigue (materials); fatigue tests; plain concrete.

Date: 9/1/1982

Abstract:
As part of an ongoing experimental/analytical research effort to evaluate the feasibility of a test method for fracture toughness of concrete, forty-eight plain concrete beams have been tested in bending to failure. All beams were notched and then precracked to different crack length/depth ratios-prior to load-ing to failure. The precracking was done using an electro-hydrodynamic materials testing system and displacement control. The beams which were cracked in fatigue were subjected to one million cycles of sinusoidal loading at 4 Hz. After the cycling was complete on a beam, the crack depth was determined using a compliance calibration technique following which the beam was loaded to failure. A load versus crack-mouth-opening-displacement trace was plotted during this final load run. For each beam tested in fatigue, a companion beam was pre-cracked "statically" by loading in repeated cycles until the crack depth, as measured by compliance calibration, matched that of the fatigued specimen. The studies were made on two different beam sizes in three and four-point bending with two different mix designs. Test results indicate the failure strength and associated maximum stress-intensity of the statically precracked beams to be slightly higher than those precracked in fatigue.