• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.89-95
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• 1990

Possibility for the evaluation of fracture properties of mortar and concrete by splitting tensile test was stud¬ied. Splitting tensile tests were conducted to obtain the fracture loads for several sizes of cylindrical specimens of mortar and concrete with initial notch. From the results, fracture energy and fracture toughness by SEL were obtained and compared with the values by Rooke and Cartwright, and r.E.Moo The values by SEL method converged effectively. SEL method was shown to be a good method to obtain fracture properties of mortar and concrete.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.415-416
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• 2010

This study presents the fracture properties of steel fiber concrete. The volume ratio of steel fiber in the concrete specimen was changed from 0%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and to 1%. The notch length was changed from 0, 15, 30, to 45mm. By applying 3-point bending tests, J-integral($J_{Ic}$), $K_{Ic}$, $G_F$ deflection strength, and fracture energy was obtained. The test results showed that the fiber content increases the concrete fracture energy.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.423-426
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• 2001

In this paper a large scale direct tension test of plain concrete is represented. Two independently controlled actuators were used to ensure a homogeneous tensile field and to avoid secondary flexural stresses. Fracture energies evaluated by a classical prediction equation and this test are compared. The result indicated that the classical prediction equation is not adequate to predict the fracture energy of large sized specimens. From this test, it was determined that the fracture energy obtained from large scale direct tension tests is significantly higher than the one obtained in wedge splitting tests on laboratory sized specimens. But the tensile strength was about half the value determined from splitting tensile strength test with cylindrical specimens.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.2 no.6
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• pp.499-516
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• 2005

A composite model is used to represent the heterogeneity of plain concrete consisting of coarse aggregates, mortar matrix and the mortar-aggregate interface. The composite elements of plain concrete are modeled using triangular finite element units which have six interface nodes along the sides. Fracture is captured through a constitutive single branch softening-fracture law at the interface nodes, which bounds the elastic domain inside each triangular unit. The inelastic displacement at an interface node represents the crack opening or sliding displacement and is conjugate to the internodal force. The path-dependent softening behaviour is developed within a quasi-prescribed displacement control formulation. The crack profile is restricted to the interface boundaries of the defined mesh. No re-meshing is carried out. Solutions to the rate formulation are obtained using a mathematical programming procedure in the form of a linear complementary problem. An event by event solution strategy is adopted to eliminate solutions with simultaneous formation of softening zones in symmetric problems. The composite plain concrete model is compared to experimental results for the tensile crack growth in a Brazilian test and three-point bending tests on different sized specimens. The model is also used to simulate wedge-type shear-compression failure directly under the loading platen of a Brazilian test.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.139-149
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• 2022

To simplify the design and reduce the construction cost of traditional multi-girder structural systems, twin I-girder structures are widely used in many countries in recent years. Due to the concern on post-fracture redundancy, however, twin girder bridges are currently classified as fracture critical structures in AASHTO specifications for highway bridges. To investigate the after-fracture behavior of such structures, a composite steel and concrete twin girder specimen was built and an artificial fracture through the web and the bottom flange was created on one main girder. The static loading test was performed to investigate its mechanical performance after a severe fracture occurred on the main girder. Applied load and vertical displacement curves, and the applied load versus strain relationships at key sections were measured. To investigate the load distribution and transfer capacities between two steel girders, the normal strain development on crossbeams was also measured during the loading test. In addition, both shear and normal strains of studs were also measured in the loading test to explore the behavior of shear connectors in such bridges. The functions and structural performance of structural members and possible load transfer paths after main girder fractures in such bridges were also discussed. The test results indicate in this study that a typical twin I-girder can resist a general fracture on one of its two main girders. The presented results can provide references for post-fracture performance and optimization for the design of twin I-girder bridges and similar structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.173-184
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• 2019

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the true fracture energy and monitor the damage progression in steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) specimens using acoustic emission (AE) features. Four point bending test is carried out using pre-notched plain and fibre reinforced (0.5% and 1% volume fraction) - concrete under monotonic loading. AE sensors are affixed at different locations of the specimens and AE parameters such as rise time, AE energy, hits, counts, amplitude and duration etc. are obtained. Using the captured and processed AE event data, fracture process zone is identified and the true fracture energy is evaluated. The AE data is also employed for tracing the damage progression in plain and fibre reinforced concrete, using both parametric- and signal- based techniques. Hilbert - Huang transform (HHT) is used in signal based processing for evaluating instantaneous frequency of the acoustic events. It is found that the appropriately processed and carefully analyzed acoustic data is capable of providing vital information on progression of damage on different types of concrete.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.3-8
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• 2008

Polymer-cement composites are known repair materials. The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of various amount of dispersion of carboxylated styrene-butadience copolymer on the selected mechanical properties of polymer-cement concrete (PCC) and on its adhesion to ordinary concrete. The compressive, flexural and tensile strengths as well as frost resistance and fracture resistance of the composites are tested. Adhesion strength of PCC to ordinary concrete, as one of most important performance of good repair material is evaluated and analyzed using three test methods. The results obtained in standard pull-off test are compared with the two other tests. The first one, which is an adaptation of WST (wedge splitting test) characterizes crack propagation in the plane of bond created during repair. In the second test the resistance to shear is a measure of adhesion strength.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.11-30
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• 2000

Structural properties of reinforced concrete, such as bond and shear strength, that depend on the tensile properties of concrete are much lower for high-strength concrete than would be expected based on relationships developed for normal-strength concretes. To determine the reason for this behavior, studies at the University of Kansas have addressed the effects of aggregate type, water-cementitious material ratio, and age on the mechanical and fracture properties of normal and high-strength concretes. The relationships between compressive strength, flexural strength, and fracture properties were studied. At the time of test, concrete ranged in age from 5 to 180 days. Water-cementitious material ratios ranged from 0.24 to 0.50, producing compressive strengths between 20 MPa(2, 920 psi) and 99 MPa(14, 320psi). Mixes contained either basalt or crushed limestone aggregate, with maximum sizes of 12mm(1/2in). or 19mm(3/4in). The tests demonstrate that the higher quality basalt coarse aggregate provides higher strengths in compression than limestone only for the high-strength concrete, but measurably higher strengths in flexure, and significantly higher fracture energies than the limestone coarse aggregate at all water-cementitious material ratios and ages. Compressive strength, water-cementitious material ratio, and age have no apparent relationship with fracture energy, which is principally governed by coarse aggregate properties. The peak bending stress in the fracture test is linearly related to flexural strength. Overall, as concrete strength increases, the amount of energy stored in the material at the peak tensile load increases, but the ability of the material to dissipate energy remains nearly constant. This suggests that, as higher strength cementitious materials are placed in service, the probability of nonductile failures will measurably increase. Both research and educational effort will be needed to develop strategies to limit the probability of brittle failures and inform the design community of the nature of the problems associated with high-strength concrete.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.257-262
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• 1995

In this study, after concrete cylinders were made on the condition of varying water-to -cement ratio, and cured 80 days compressive strength and splitting tensile strength were performed and moduls of elasticy is obtained. The fracture energy was obtained by acting three point bending on the 80cm in length. This test involved static loading test and dynamic loading test. In this work, the new interrelation of the material constants was obtained clearly and the property of the mixture was inspected, including the relation between the fracture energy and all kind of the material constants.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.519-533
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• 2005

The numerical simulations on the influence of mesoscopic structures on the macroscopic strength and fracture characteristics are carried out based on that the concrete is assumed to be a three-phase composite composed of matrix (mortar), aggregate and bond between them by using a numerical code named MFPA. The finite element program is employed as the basic stress analysis tool when the elastic damage mechanics is used to describe the constitutive law of meso-level element and the maximum tensile strain criterion and Mohr-Coulomb criterion are utilized as damage threshold. It can be found from the numerical results that the bond between matrix and aggregate has a significant effect on the macroscopic mechanical performance of concrete.