Developing an Innovative Field Expedient Fracture Toughness Testing Protocol for Concrete Materials

摘要

Failure of concrete structures is accompanied by cracking of concrete. Understanding and modeling of how and when concrete fails are not only critical for designing concrete structures, but are also important for developing new cement-based materials. Furthermore, to evaluate the response of concrete structures subjected to impact or impulsive loading, it is essential to know how cracks propagate under such dynamic loading conditions. Therefore, quantification of the fracture toughness (e.g., resistance to propagation of cracks) of concrete materials is the key to ensuring safe operation of concrete structures. High-strength concrete (HSC) was developed recently with compressive strengths reaching 25 ksi or higher to satisfy the need for high-rise reinforced concrete structures with reduced support column footprints to increase usable space.