Creep and drying shrinkage characteristics of concrete produced with coarse recycled concrete aggregate

Laboratory tests are performed to investigate the effects of a new method of mixture proportioning on the creep and shrinkage characteristics of concrete made with recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). In this method, RCA is treated as a two component composite material consisting of residual mortar and natural aggregate; accordingly, when proportioning the concrete mixture, the relative amount and properties of each component are individually considered. The test variables include the mixture proportioning method, and the aggregate type. The results show that the amounts of creep and shrinkage in concretes made with coarse RCA, and proportioned by the new method, are comparable to, or even lower than, those in similar concretes made entirely with natural aggregates. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that by applying the proposed “residual mortar factor” to the existing ACI and CEB methods for calculating creep or shrinkage of conventional concrete, these methods could be also applied to predict the creep and shrinkage of RCA-concrete.     

石屑应用于混凝土中的探索性试验

本文将石屑和水洗河砂按比例配制组成混合砂应用于混凝土中,通过试验调整和试用,混凝土工作性和强度良好。     

Effect of aggregate size on the fracture and mechanical properties of a simple concrete

The influence of the aggregate size on the fracture energy, tensile strength and elasticity modulus in different types of concrete are analyzed. For this purpose, nine simple cement-based composites have been designed, manufactured and tested, with one objective to provide experimental results that can be used as a benchmark for checking numerical models of concrete fracture, as this simple composite (a matrix, spherical aggregates of the same radius, and two types of matrix-aggregate interface) is amenable to modelling. All in all, 44 specimens were tested. From notched beam tests, values of the fracture energy and modulus of elasticity were obtained. The tensile stress was deduced from indirect standard tensile test. Data for bilinear softening functions extracted from the experimental measurements are also provided. Comparison with available experimental data is also included and discussed.     

Damage distribution and size effect in numerical concrete from lattice analyses

Size effect on structural strength of concrete prisms subjected to three-point bending has been studied using the lattice model, which has been extended and now contains a realistic aggregate structure of concrete. The aggregate structure was obtained from CT-scans of real concrete prisms and overlaying the obtained image with a 3-dimensional hcp-lattice. The numerical analyses show that a size effect on structural strength exists for all studied aggregate densities and aggregate shapes. The size effect can be approximated with a Weibull model, where the main parameter, the Weibull modulus, depends on the concrete composition. The crack size distributions have been calculated and show a similar distribution as hypothesized before for fracture in ceramics. The results from the crack size distribution are helping to provide insight into the nature of the fracture process, which seems to differ from that hitherto assumed in cohesive crack models. After a weakening of the material through a multitude of microcracks, at peak load a single large crack propagates while loading continues in the softening regime. The presumed ‘cloud of microcracks’ advancing ahead of the macro-crack tip has not been found. Instead an alternative macroscopic model strategy, referred to as the 4-stage fracture model, is proposed.     

Effect of aggregate shape on the mechanical properties of a simple concrete

The influence of aggregate shape on the fracture energy, tensile strength and elasticity modulus in concrete is considered. For this purpose, eight simple cement-based composites were designed, manufactured and tested, with two purposes: to provide experimental data that can throw some light on this involved problem and help in the design of future cement-based composites, and supply information that can be used as a benchmark for checking numerical models of concrete failure, as this simple composite is amenable to being modelled quite easily. Thirty-six notched beams were tested and values of the fracture energy and elasticity modulus were recorded. The tensile strength was measured from indirect standard tensile tests. Comparison with available experimental data is also included and discussed. Fracture was modelled using a cohesive crack with a bilinear softening function; data of the softening function inferred from the experimental measurements are also provided and discussed.     

Effect of strain gradients on the size effect of concrete in uniaxial tension

A series of uniaxial tension experiments has been conducted to investigate the size effect on strength and fracture energy of quasi brittle materials like concrete and sandstone. This paper focuses on the results of the concrete tests, and specifically deals with the variation of the nominal strength for specimens of six different sizes in a scale range of 1:32. It was found that under given experimental conditions, the nominal strength strongly depended on the specimen size. More important however, is the fact that most of this size effect could be attributed to strain gradients which were present in the cross section of the specimens. These strain gradients were caused by the specimen shape, load eccentricity and material inhomogeneity. Through a combination of experimental data and a simple linear elastic analysis, the importance of strain gradients with respect to the ultimate load level could be visualized. This leads to the conclusion that studying a material size effect is not possible without taking into account structural stress/strain gradients. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Strain Localisation and Damage Measurement by Full 3D Digital Image Correlation: Application to 15‐5PH Stainless Steel

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to propose a method for measuring damage in ductile materials, from its inception to rupture. In the first stage of damage, which occurs before localisation, the usual method for determining damage through the measurement of stiffness variation is used. A damageable elastic–plastic model of the modified Lemaitre/Chaboche type is identified from these tests. An original method is proposed for measuring damage following the initiation of strain localisation. This method is based on a full 3D image correlation analysis using four cameras. The principle of the method consists in identifying the damage through tensile experiments on thin, flat‐notched specimens subjected to tensile loading. Speckles are applied on both faces of each specimen in order to follow the strain fields on the two faces at the same time. These two strain fields are digitised simultaneously by two synchronised sets of two digital cameras. This paper shows how this method enables one to identify strain localisation and deduce the evolution of damage directly. Here, the method is developed for 15‐5 PH stainless steel.     

Characterization of isothermal and cyclic thermal damage of EB-PVD TBCs with the help of the 3D-DIC technique

The thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are working under complex elevated temperature loading conditions. In the present work, a damage model for the isothermal and cyclic thermal loads was developed to quantify the failure process of the coatings subjected to isothermal and cyclic thermal exposures. Effects of different damage mechanisms, such as thermal exposure, thermal cycling, aluminum migration, and thermal dwell times, were experimentally and computationally studied. The digital image correlation (DIC) technique was introduced to evaluate degradation of TBCs. The complex damage can be quantified with the help of the DIC strain variations. The introduced model provides a general method to estimate the remaining life.     

Reliability and scale effect in toughness of concrete structures

In the present work, the distribution of the random toughness characteristics (i.e. critical energy release rate, G_1c) has been evaluated on the basis of experimental observations. Fracture test results from three groups of geometrically similar concrete specimens of size (width×total depth×thickness), 420×420×50–1680×1680×200 mm³, made with different maximum aggregate size of 9.5, 19, 38, and 76 mm were analyzed using a recently proposed distribution of extremes. In applications of probability, it is important to use an appropriate distribution type and adequate techniques for estimating the parameters of distribution. In this study, a new type distribution of minima is employed for probability computations. It was noticed that the entropy of distribution increases with the crack length, i.e. the uncertainty of toughness, G_1c, value increases with crack length. A non-linear reduction of the maximum allowable splitting force with the defect size, a, was noticed. For large specimens, the maximum allowable splitting load is more sensitive to the required reliability level than that for small specimens. Reliability increases with aggregate size when all other conditions were constant.     

Whole-field strain analysis and damage assessment of adhesively bonded patch repair of CFRP laminates using 3D-DIC and FEA

The problem of damage evolution in composite structures, the way it propagates, performance and behavior is of paramount importance in utilizing them for structural applications. In the present work, an experimental study is carried out using digital image correlation (DIC) technique to analyze the behavior of adhesively bonded patch repair of carbon/epoxy unidirectional composite laminates under tensile loading. The damaged panel is repaired with both double and single sided circular patch made of same parent material. Damage initiation and propagation in notched and repaired panel as well as patch debonding is studied using 3D-DIC. Also a 3-D finite element analysis is carried out and obtained strain values are compared with the experimental prediction. They are found to be in good agreement.     

A comprehensive investigation into the effect of aging and coarse aggregate size and volume on mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete

The popularity of self-compacting concrete (SCC), as an innovative construction materials in concrete industry, has increased all over the world in recent decades. SCC offers a safer construction process and durable concrete structure due to its typical fresh concrete behavior which is achieved by SCC’s significantly different mixture composition. This modification of mix composition may have significant effect on the hardened mechanical properties of SCC as compared to normal vibrated concrete (NVC). Therefore, it is necessary to know whether the use of all rules and relations that have been formulated for NVC in current design codes based on years of experience are also valid for SCC. Furthermore, this study represents an extensive evaluation and comparison between mechanical properties of SCC using current international codes and prediction equations proposed by other researchers. Thus, in this experimental study, major mechanical properties of SCC are investigated for twelve SCC mixes with wide spectrum of different variables i.e. maximum coarse aggregate size, coarse aggregate volume and aging. In the present study, an extensive body of data reported by many researchers for SCC and NVC has been used to validate the obtained results.     

Time-resolved strain and deformation measurement on the vibrating saxophone reed

Single-reed musical instruments, such as the saxophone, generate sound through a complex interplay between the mechanics of the reed and the hydrodynamic and acoustic pressure in the instrument mouthpiece. To understand this complex mechanism, experimental data are lacking. This paper presents full-field, time-resolved measurements of strain and displacement of a vibrating saxophone reed, measured under mimicked realistic playing conditions. It is found that strain along the length axis of the reed is mainly expansive, except in a small zone near the tip where it becomes compressive when the reed touches the front edge of the mouthpiece. At the instant in the vibration phase where the reed touches the mouthpiece, significant bending and compressive strain appear along the direction perpendicular to the reed axis. Strain magnitudes in both directions are similar, with absolute values of 0.1%. Full-field strain maps reveal subtle characteristics which are not revealed by displacement measurements. Bi-axial bending and strain may be an essential component in reed mechanics, which up till now has been fully neglected in modelling.     

The influence of aggregate particles on the local strain distribution and fracture mechanism of cement paste during drying shrinkage and loading to failure

Summary This paper introduces some preliminary results from a compre-hensive investigation into the influence of the structure of concrete on its internal and overall deformational behaviour under combined stresses. Two-dimensional plate models were loaded in uniaxial compression and the local strain distribution in the fine mortar matrix around aggregate particles was measured using electrical resis-tance strain gauges and photo-elastic coatings. Triaxial strain measurements at discontinuity and ultimate stress were made on cylindrical specimens, of the fine mortar matrix using a special hydraulic triaxial cell. The local and composite material strains at fracture initiation in the plate models were compared with the corresponding values obtained from the triaxial compression tests on the fine mortar matrix and uniaxial compression tests on idealized “three dimensional” concretes. Results indicate that the presence of aggregate particles alters considerably the local strains in the mortar matrix. The restraining influence of strong, hard aggregates induces shrinkage cracks in unloaded specimens which may or may not weaken the material depending on the local and applied stress states. For the models tested under uniaxial compression, cracking was initiated in the mortar matrix at composite material strains which were smaller than for the pure mortar and decreased with increasing volume fraction of coarse aggregate.

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Résumé Ce rapport fournit quelques résultats préliminaires d'une étude complète de l'influence de la structure du béton sur les caractéristiques de ses déformations, internes et apparentes, sous des efforts combinés. Des modèles bi-dimensionnels en forme de plaques ont été soumis à une compression uniaxiale et la répartition des déformations locales dans le mortier fin enrobant les grains d'agrégat a été mesurée au moyen de jauges à résistances électriqués et de vernis photo-élastiques. Les mesures de la déformation volumétrique à l'endroit de la discontinuité et la mesure de rupture ont été faites sur des éprouvettes cylin-driques constituées par le mortier fin d'enrobage, à l'aide d'une cellule de mesure triaxiale hydraulique spéciale. Les déformations locales et celles du matériau composé au début de la rupture des modèles ont été comparées avec les valeurs correspondantes obtenues par l'essai de compression volumétrique du mortier fin d'enrobage et par l'essai à la compression uniaxiale sur les bétons ?tri-dimensionnels idéalisés?. Les résultats indiquent que la présence de grains d'agrégat altèrefortement les déformations locales du mortier d'enrobage. L'effet restrictif d'agrégats durs et résistants provoque des fissures de retrait dans les éprouvettes non-chargées, ce qui peut affaiblir ou non le matériau suivant l'état des déformations imposées. Pour les modèles soumis à la compression uniaxiale, la fissuration commen?ait dans le mortier d'enrobage, pour des déformations de l'ensemble du matériau composé inférieures à celles subies par le mortier pur, et qui diminuaient avec l'accroissement de la part volumique du gross agrégat.

     

引气混凝土气泡尺寸分布的三维重构

基于体视学和几何概率理论给出了引气混凝土三维气泡尺寸重构方法,由二维平面上气泡截面圆的直径分布计算气孔的实际尺寸分布,并生成了一个多尺度分布的立方体模型结构验证了该三维重构方法的合理性.然后,使用邻近粒子表面最近间距的解析解研究了气泡细度和混凝土含气量对邻近气泡表面最近间距平均值的影响,并与用传统方法得到的气泡间距因子进行了比较.结果表明,在含气量相同的条件下,用传统方法得到的气泡间距因子是邻近气泡表面最近间距平均值的3-4倍.该方法的给出,为从二维截面上获得的引气混凝土中的气泡截面圆信息获取实际气泡在三维空间中的气泡间距信息提供了依据.     

Application of Stereovision to the Mechanical Characterisation of Ceramic Refractories Reinforced with Metallic Fibres

Abstract:  Optical methods that yield displacement or strain fields are now emerging significantly in the mechanical sciences. At the Research Center on Tools, Materials and Forming Processes (CROMeP) at École des Mines d'Albi, a binocular stereovision system has been developed that can be used to measure: (a) the three-dimensional (3D) shape of a static object, or (b) the surface strains of an object undergoing some 3D mechanical or thermal stress. In this paper, the application of the stereovision technique to investigate the behaviour of ceramic refractories reinforced with metallic fibres is presented: (i) after the rupture of the sample for assessing the 3D orientation of the fibres in order to correlate a micro-mechanical model of fibre pullout with the macro-mechanical results of tensile tests, and (ii) during a tensile test for measuring the 3D displacement/strain field around a notch.     

多孔PDMS基底复合柔性互连导线拉伸时3D变形行为研究

目的 探究多孔聚二甲基硅氧烷(PDMS)基底复合柔性互连导线的透气性能和延展性能,以使其更好地应用在医疗领域。方法 本文采用三维数字图像相关(3D-DIC)方法检测了25 ℃下不同孔隙率的多孔PDMS基底复合柔性互连导线单轴拉伸过程中导线与基底的面内应变失配和离面位移特征。在此基础上,本文引入平均位移(wm)和位移幅(wa)作为量化表征复合柔性电子离面变形的指标,并结合多孔PDMS基底的气密性实验结果评价了不同导线样品。结果 研究结果表明,多孔PDMS材料作为基底能显著降低复合柔性电子的离面变形程度,并使复合柔性电子具有良好的透气性。在相同拉伸载荷(20 N)和拉伸距离下,PDMS与去离子水质量比为6∶1时的多孔PDMS基底复合柔性互联导线具有稳定的离面变形变化量。结论 多孔PDMS基底复合柔性电子不仅具有良好的透气性,而且可以有效地增强金属互联层与柔性基底的粘连程度。本文所获得的PDMS与去离子水最佳掺杂质量比,可为制造高延展性多孔基底柔性电子器件提供参考。     

Determination of concrete fracture parameters based on two-parameter and size effect models using split-tension cubes

The notched beam specimens have been commonly used in concrete fracture. In this study, the splitting-cube specimens, which have some advantages - compactness and lightness - compared to the beams, were analyzed for the effective crack models: two-parameter model and size effect model. The linear elastic fracture mechanics formulas of the cube specimens namely the stress intensity factor, the crack mouth opening displacement, and the crack opening displacement profile were first determined for different load-distributed widths using the finite element method. Subsequently, four series of experimental studies on cubic, cylindrical, and beam specimens were performed. The statistical investigations indicated that the results of the split-cube tests look viable and very promising.     

Time gap effect on bond strength of 3D-printed concrete

An advancing technology that combines the concrete extrusion with a motion control to create structures with complex geometrical shapes without the need for formwork is known as 3D concrete printing. Since this technique prints layer by layer, the time taken to reach the same position in the subsequent layer is important as it will create an anisotropic property that has a weaker tensile strength at the bond interface of the two printed filaments. Through rheological measurement, which reveals the material deformation and flow behaviour, it is possible to examine the material structural build-up due to time-gap effect by measuring at different time delay. This paper focuses on investigating the time-gap effect on the printed filament with rheological and observation at macroscopic-scale to understand the material behaviour of the initial and subsequent printed layer during its fresh phase. Rheological experiment findings reveal that the tensile strength of the printed specimen is correlated to the material modulus at the initial layer.     

Modeling the effect of high temperature on the bond of FRP reinforcing bars to concrete

The effect of high temperature on the bond between fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) reinforcing bars (rebars) and concrete was studied. The bond strength exhibited a severe reduction of 80–90% at relatively low temperature (up to 200°C), accompanied by changes in the pullout load-slip behavior. A semi-empirical model was developed in order to describe the extent of reduction in the bond strength as the temperature rises. The model is based on the following parameters: glass transition temperature of the polymer layer at the surface of the rod; polymer's degree of crosslinking; the residual bond strength at high temperature after the polymer of the external layer of the rebar ceased to contribute to the bond. The parameters of the rods that were tested for pullout at various temperatures were introduced into the model. The output curves of bond–temperature relationships showed good agreement with the test results.