• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2013

Two different UHPCCs having different fiber lengths and volume fractions are considered to be applied to bridge decks. The objective of this study is to estimate cracking resistance of the two UHPCCs. The notched beam tests were performed with the UHPCCs, and the relationships between load and CMOD(Crack Mouth Opening Displacement) were obtained from the tests. The tensile stress and crack opening relationships optimally fitting the measured load-CMOD curves were found through the inverse analyses. The UHPCC with 2% volume fraction of 13 mm long fiber has lower fracture energy than the UHPCC with 0.5% and 1.0% volume fractions of 16.3 mm and 19.5 mm long fibers, respectively. It indicates that the latter UHPCC is more effective in uniformly distributing crack formation and reducing crack width.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.58-66
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• 2002

The objective of this study is to examine the fracture characteristics of concrete at early ages such as critical stress intensity factor, critical crack-tip opening displacement, fracture energy, and bilinear softening curve based on the concepts of the effective-elastic crack model and the cohesive crack model. A wedge splitting test for Mode I was performed on cubic wedge specimens with a notch at the edge. By taking various strengths and ages, load-crack mouth opening displacement curves were obtained, and the results were analyzed by linear elastic fracture mechanics and the finite element method. The results from the test and analysis showed that critical stress intensity factor and fracture energy increased, and critical crack-tip opening displacement decreased with concrete ages from 1 day to 28 days. By numerical analysis four parameters of bilinear softening curve from 1 day to 28 days were obtained. The obtained fracture parameters and bilinear softening curves at early ages may be used as a fracture criterion and an input data for finite element analysis of concrete at early ages.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.205-214
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• 2012

Crack widths play an important role in the serviceability limit state. When crack widths are controlled sufficiently, the reinforcement corrosion can be reduced using only existing concrete cover thickness due to low permeability in the region of finely distributed hair-cracks. Thus, the knowledge about the tensile crack opening is essential in designing more durable concrete structures. Therefore, numerous researches related to the topic have been performed. Nevertheless accurate measurement of a crack width is not a simple task due to several reasons such as unknown potential crack formation location and crack opening damaging strain gages. In order to overcome these difficulties and measure precise crack widths, a displacement measurement system was developed using digital image correlation. Accuracy calibration tests gave an average measurement error of 0.069 pixels and a standard deviation of 0.050 pixels. Direct tensile test was performed using ultra high performance concrete specimens. Crack widths at both notched and unnotched locations were measured and compared with clip-in gages at various loading steps to obtain crack opening profile. Tensile deformation characteristics of concrete were well visualized using displacement vectors and full-field displacement contour maps. The proposed technique made it possible to measure crack widths at arbitrary locations, which is difficult with conventional gages such as clip-in gages or displacement transducers.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.341-358
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• 2013

Due to fast growth in urbanisation, a highly developed infrastructure is essential for economic growth and prosperity. One of the major problems is to preserve, maintain, and retrofit these structures. To meet the requirements of construction industry, the basic information on all the mechanical properties of various concretes is essential. This paper presents the details of development of various concretes, namely, normal strength concrete (around 50 MPa), high strength concrete (around 85 MPa) and ultra high strength concrete (UHSC) (around 120 MPa) including their mechanical properties. The various mechanical properties such as compressive strength, split tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, fracture energy and tensile stress vs crack width have been obtained from the respective test results. It is observed from the studies that a higher value of compressive strength, split tensile strength and fracture energy is achieved in the case of UHSC, which can be attributed to the contribution at different scales viz., at the meso scale due to the fibers and at the micro scale due to the close packing of grains which is on account of good grading of the particles. Micro structure of UHSC mix has been examined for various magnifications to identify the pores if any present in the mix. Brief note on characteristic length and brittleness number has been given.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.1
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• pp.103-114
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• 2021

Ultra high strength concrete (UHSC) originally proposed by Richards and Cheyrezy (1995) composed of cement, silica fume, quartz sand, quartz powder, steel fibers, superplasticizer etc. Later, other ingredients such as fly ash, GGBS, metakaoline, copper slag, fine aggregate of different sizes have been added to original UHSC. In the present investigation, the combined effect of coarse aggregate (6mm - 10mm) and steel fibers (0.50%, 1.0% and 1.5%) has been studied on UHSC mixes to evaluate mechanical and fracture properties. Compressive strength, split tensile strength and modulus of elasticity were determined for the three UHSC mixes. Size dependent fracture energy was evaluated by using RILEM work of fracture and size independent fracture energy was evaluated by using (i) RILEM work of fracture with tail correction to load - deflection plot (ii) boundary effect method. The constitutive relationship between the residual stress carrying capacity (σ) and the corresponding crack opening (w) has been constructed in an inverse manner based on the concept of a non-linear hinge from the load-crack mouth opening plots of notched three-point bend beams. It was found that (i) the size independent fracture energy obtained by using above two approaches yielded similar value and (ii) tensile stress increases with the increase of % of fibers. These two fracture properties will be very much useful for the analysis of cracked concrete structural components.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.253-258
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• 2016

The effect of temperature on the fracture energy, crack propagation, and crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) was determined for particulate reinforced composites using the wedge splitting test. The materials that were used consisted of a polymer binder, an oxidizing agent, and aluminum particles. The test rate of the wedge splitting specimen was 50 mm/min, the temperature conditions were $50^{\circ}C$, room temperature, $-40^{\circ}C$, and $-60^{\circ}C$. The fracture energy, calculated from splitting load-crack mouth opening displacement(CMOD) curves, increased with decreasing temperature from $50^{\circ}C$ to $-40^{\circ}C$. In addition, the strength of the particulate reinforced composites increased sharply at $-60^{\circ}C$, and the composites evidenced brittle fracture due to the glass transition temperature. The strain fields near the crack tip were analyzed using digital image correlation.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.22-29
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• 2015

Modern structures is the tendency of being increasingly taller and larger. The concrete with large weight has the disadvantage of increasing the weight on the structure. therefore, the method of carrying out the weight saving of the concrete is required. one of such method is to use a lightweight aggregate. However, studies on structural lightweight concrete, lacking for the recognition of the lightweight concrete, so also is lacking. therefore it is necessary to study on the physical characteristic value of the lightweight concrete. In this study, in order to investigate the tensile properties of lightweight concrete, Crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) experiments were carried out. the fracture energy of the lightweight concrete subjected to inverse analysis were derived from the CMOD experimental results.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.129-139
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• 2014

In this study, the concrete fracture energy was obtained using the three point notched beam test method developed by Hillerborg et al. (Cem Concr Res 6(6):773-782, 1976). A total of 12 notched concrete beams were tested under two different loading conditions: constant stroke control and constant crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) control. Despite individual fracture energies obtained from the two different loading conditions showing some variation, the average fracture energy from both loading conditions was very similar. Furthermore, the results obtained support the idea that a far tail constant "A" could change the true fracture energy by up to 11 %, if it is calculated using CMOD instead of LVDT. The far tail constant "A" is determined using a least squares fit onto a straight line according to Elices et al. (Mater Struct 25(148):212-218, 1992) and RILEM report (2007). It was also observed that the selection of the end point can produce variations of the true fracture energy. The end point indicates the point in the experiment at which to stop. An end point of 2 mm has been recommended, however, in this study other end points were also considered. The final form of the bilinear softening curve was determined based on Elices and Guinea's methods (1992, 1994) and RILEM report (2007). This paper proposes a bilinear stress-crack opening displacement curve according to test results as well as the CEB-FIP model code.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.81-97
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• 2012

This paper presents development of double-K fracture model for the split-tension cube specimen for determining the unstable fracture toughness and initial cracking toughness of concrete. There are some advantages of using of split-tension cube test like compactness and lightness over the existing specimen geometries in practice such as three-point bend test, wedge splitting test and compact tension specimen. The cohesive toughness of the material is determined using weight function having four terms for the split-tension cube specimen. Some empirical relations are also suggested for determining geometrical factors in order to calculate stress intensity factor and crack mouth opening displacement for the same specimen. The results of double-K fracture parameters of split-tension cube specimen are compared with those obtained for compact tension specimen. Finally, the influence of the width of the load-distribution of split-tension cube specimen on the double-K fracture parameters for laboratory size specimens is investigated. The input data required for determining double-K fracture parameters for both the specimen geometries are obtained using well known version of the Fictitious Crack Model.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.163-175
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• 2016

This paper presents a revised procedure for computation of double-K fracture parameters of concrete split-tension cube specimen using weight function of the centrally cracked plate of finite strip with a finite width. This is an improvement over the previous work of the authors in which the determination of double-K fracture parameters of concrete for split-tension cube test using weight function of the centrally cracked plate of infinite strip with a finite width was presented. In a recent research, it was pointed out that there are great differences between a finite strip and an infinite strip regarding their weight function and the solution of infinite strip can be utilized in the split-tension specimens when the notch size is very small. In the present work, improved version of LEFM formulas for stress intensity factor, crack mouth opening displacement and crack opening displacement profile presented in the recent research work are incorporated. The results of the double-K fracture parameters obtained using revised procedure and the previous work of the authors is compared. The double-K fracture parameters of split-tension cube specimen are also compared with those obtained for standard three point bend test specimen. The input data required for determining double-K fracture parameters for both the specimen geometries for laboratory size specimens are obtained using well known version of the Fictitious Crack Model.