Fracture of concrete and reinforcement scale

Surendra P. Shah*, Jae Hong Kim

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

Concrete is a quasi-brittle material of which cracking behavior can be explained by nonlinear fracture mechanics. In order to improve the fracture resistance, structural concrete is usually reinforced with reinforcing bars or prestressing strands. In addition, it has been found advantageous to use reinforcement in form of fiber fragments. Steel, glass, or synthetic fibers having the micrometer-scale diameter are generally adopted, and the fibers develop bridging stress to suppress crack growth and widening. The control of cracking by incorporating the fibers is of importance for earthquake-resistance structures, resistance to spalling due to fire, and submerged structures. The bridging effect due to the fibers is characterized by using fracture mechanics-based models. The reinforced fracture resistance is firstly evaluated on the development of a single major crack, and multiple cracking is considered given that the fiber-bridging stress provides sufficient ductility not to localize the cracking. The multiple crack models can accurately predict crack width in a structure. Recently, nanoscale reinforcement shows an interesting result on strengthening nanostructure of cement-based materials. A currently investigated research on carbon nanotube reinforcement will be briefly described.

Original languageEnglish (US)
StatePublished - Dec 1 2010
Event18th European Conference on Fracture: Fracture of Materials and Structures from Micro to Macro Scale, ECF 2010 - Dresden, Germany
Duration: Aug 30 2010Sep 3 2010

Other

Other18th European Conference on Fracture: Fracture of Materials and Structures from Micro to Macro Scale, ECF 2010
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityDresden
Period8/30/109/3/10

Keywords

  • Carbon nano-Tube
  • Cement paste
  • Concrete
  • Fibers
  • Mortar
  • Reinforcement

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mechanics of Materials

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