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Investigating crack initiation and propagation of concrete in restrained shrinkage circular/elliptical ring test

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Abstract

The restrained ring test, which is recommended by AASHTO and ASTM, has been used for assessing the potential of early-age cracking of concrete and other cement-based materials. Recently, a novel elliptical ring test method has been proposed to replace the circular ring test method for the purpose of shortening ring test duration and observing crack initiation and propagation more conveniently. In order to explore the mechanism of this novel test method, a numerical model is developed to analyze crack initiation and propagation process in restrained concrete rings, in which the effect of concrete shrinkage is simulated by a fictitious temperature drop applied on concrete causing the same strain as that induced by shrinkage. First, an elastic analysis is conducted to obtain the circumferential stress contour of a concrete ring subject to restrained shrinkage. Combined with the fictitious crack model, a fracture mechanics method is introduced to determine crack initiation and propagation, in which crack resistance caused by cohesive force acting on fracture process zone is considered. Finite element analysis is carried out to simulate the evolution of stress intensity factor in restrained concrete rings subject to circumferential drying. Cracking age and position of a series of circular/elliptical concrete rings are obtained from numerical analyses which agree reasonably well with experimental results. It is found that the sudden drop of steel strain observed in the restrained ring test represents the onset of unstable crack propagation rather than crack initiation. The results given by the AASHTO/ASTM restrained ring test actually reflects the response of a concrete ring as a structure to external stimulation, in this case restrained concrete shrinkage.

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Abbreviations

a :

Crack length

A :

Exposed surface area of a concrete element

d :

Steel ring thickness

E :

Elastic modulus of concrete

f c :

Uniaxial compressive strength

f t :

Splitting tensile strength of concrete

G F :

Fracture energy

\(K_{\text{I}}^{\text{S}}\) :

Stress intensity factor caused by applied load

\(K_{\text{I}}^{\sigma }\) :

Stress intensity factor caused by cohesive force

R 0 :

Inner diameter of circular concrete ring

R 1 :

Major semi-axes of inner circumference of elliptical concrete ring

R 2 :

Minor semi-axes of inner circumference of elliptical concrete ring

t :

Age of concrete

V :

Volume of a concrete element

w :

Crack opening displacement

w 0 :

Stress-free crack opening displacement

w s :

Displacement corresponding to the break point in bilinear σ–w relationship

Δa :

Crack growth length

ΔP :

Load incensement

σ :

Cohesive stress

σ s :

Stress corresponding to the break point in bilinear σ–w relationship

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Acknowledgments

The financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the grants of NSFC 51478083 & 51421064, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under the grant of EP/I031952/1, and the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, Grant No. 2015CB057703) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Dong, Xiangming Zhou, Zhimin Wu & Bohan Xu

  2. Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK

    Xiangming Zhou

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  1. Wei Dong
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Correspondence to Wei Dong.

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Dong, W., Zhou, X., Wu, Z. et al. Investigating crack initiation and propagation of concrete in restrained shrinkage circular/elliptical ring test. Mater Struct 50, 73 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-016-0942-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-016-0942-1

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