Constitutive Behavior

Equi-biaxial Flexural Fatigue Behavior of Thin Circular UHPFRC Slab-like Specimens

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Abstract

This paper investigates experimentally the equi-biaxial flexural fatigue behavior of thin circular slab specimens made of Ultra High Performance Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Composite (UHPFRC), using ring-on-ring test method. The circular slab-like specimens represent an external tensile reinforcement layer for reinforced concrete (RC) slabs or a new thin slab element for the application, e.g. in bridge construction. Four series of flexural fatigue tests under constant amplitude fatigue cycles up to Very High Cycle Fatigue (20 million cycles) are conducted with varying stress levels S ranging from 0.47 to 0.76, targeting at the endurance limit of UHPFRC material and fatigue damage propagation under equi-biaxial stress condition. By means of digital image correlation (DIC) system, the tensile surface of each slab is monitored continually during testing, and the fatigue damage evolution is studied in terms of central deflection propagation. Based on the fatigue test results, a fatigue endurance limit is determined to be S=0.50, and four stages of fatigue damage evolution are characterized for the UHPFRC slabs with fatigue failure.

Keywords: digital image correlation (DIC), fatigue damage, Very High Cycle Fatigue, biaxial flexural fatigue behavior, circular UHPFRC slab, ring-on-ring test method

How to Cite:

Shen, X. & Brühwiler, E., (2019) “Equi-biaxial Flexural Fatigue Behavior of Thin Circular UHPFRC Slab-like Specimens”, International Interactive Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Concrete 2(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.21838/uhpc.9638