• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.127-135
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• 1997

In this study, the wedge splitting tcst (WST) was carried out for the fatigue wack growth behavior of concrete. Selected test variables were concrete compressive strength of 28, 60 and 118 MI%, and stress ratio with 2 levels (6. 13%). In oder to make the designed stress ratio, the maximum and thr minimum fatigue loading level were 75-85% and 5- 10% of ultimate static load, respectively. Fatigue testing was preceded by crack mout.h opening displacement (CMOI)) compliance calibration tcst, and then the fatigue crack growth was computed by crack lcngth vs. (lMOI) compliance relations acquisited by the CMOD compliance calibration technique. To evaluate thc validity of CMOD compliancc calibration techniquc, the crack length p~mlicted by this method was cornpard with the crack length by linear elastic fracture mechanics(LEFIbl) and dyeing test. On the basis of the experimental results, a LRFhl-based c.mpirica1 model for f'at,igue crack growth rate(da/dN-AKI relationships) was presented. The fat,igut. crack growth ratc increased with the strength of concwtc. It appcars that t.he da/tiN-AKI relationships was influenced by stress ratio, however, the effect is diminished with an increase of strength. The comparisons between CblOl) compliance calibration technique anti the other. methods gave the validity of' ('MOD compliance calibration technique for the LZXT.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.541-557
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• 2015

This research aims to analyze the fracture coalescence characteristics of brittle sandstone specimen ($80{\times}160{\times}30mm$ in size) containing various flaws (a single fissure, double squares and combined flaws). Using a rock mechanics servo-controlled testing system, the strength and deformation behaviours of sandstone specimen containing various flaws are experimentally investigated. The results show that the crack initiation stress, uniaxial compressive strength and peak axial strain of specimen containing a single fissure are all higher than those containing double squares, while which are higher than those containing combined flaws. For sandstone specimen containing combined flaws, the uniaxial compressive strength of sandstone increase as fissure angle (${\alpha}$) increases from $30^{\circ}$ to $90^{\circ}$, which indicates that the specimens with steeper fissure angles can support higher axial capacity for ${\alpha}$ greater than $30^{\circ}$. In the entire deformation process of flawed sandstone specimen, crack evolution process is discussed detailed using photographic monitoring technique. For the specimen containing a single fissure, tensile wing cracks are first initiated at the upper and under tips of fissure, and anti-tensile cracks and far-field cracks are also observed in the deformation process; moreover anti-tensile cracks usually accompanies with tensile wing cracks. For the specimen containing double squares, tensile cracks are usually initiated from the top and bottom edge of two squares along the direction of axial stress, and in the process of final unstable failure, more vertical splitting failures are observed in the ligament region. When a single fissure and double squares are formed together into combined flaws, the crack coalescence between the fissure tips and double squares plays a significant role for ultimate failure of the specimen containing combined flaws.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.93-100
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• 2018

It is seldom possible that geotechnical materials like rocks and concretes found without joints, cracks, or discontinuities. Thereby, the impact of micro-cracks on the mechanical properties of them is to be considered. In the present study, the effect of micro-crack on the failure mechanism of rock specimens under uniaxial compression was investigated experimentally. For this purpose, thermal stress was used to induce micro-cracks in the specimens. Several cylindrical and disk shape specimens were drilled from granite collected from Zanjan granite mine, Iran. Some of the prepared specimens were kept in room temperature and the others were heated by a laboratory furnace to different temperature levels (200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 degree Celsius). During the experimental tests, Acoustic Emission (AE) sensors were used to monitor specimen failure at the different loading sequences. Also, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to distinguish the induced micro-crack by heating in the specimens. The fractographic analysis revealed that the thin sections heated to $800^{\circ}C$ and $1000^{\circ}C$ contain some induced micro-fractures, but in the thin sections heated to $200^{\circ}C$, $400^{\circ}C$ and $600^{\circ}C$ have not been observed any micro-fracture. In the next, a comprehensive experimental investigation was made to evaluate mechanical properties of heated and unheated specimens. Results of experimental tests showed that induced micro-cracks significantly influence on the failure mode of specimens. The specimens kept at room temperature failed in the splitting mode, while the failure mode of specimens heated to $800^{\circ}C$ are shearing and the specimens heated to $1000^{\circ}C$ failed in the spalling mode. On the basis of AE monitoring, it is found that with increasing of the micro-crack density, the ratio of the number of shear cracks to the number of tensile cracks increases, under loading sequences.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.81-97
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• 2012

This paper presents development of double-K fracture model for the split-tension cube specimen for determining the unstable fracture toughness and initial cracking toughness of concrete. There are some advantages of using of split-tension cube test like compactness and lightness over the existing specimen geometries in practice such as three-point bend test, wedge splitting test and compact tension specimen. The cohesive toughness of the material is determined using weight function having four terms for the split-tension cube specimen. Some empirical relations are also suggested for determining geometrical factors in order to calculate stress intensity factor and crack mouth opening displacement for the same specimen. The results of double-K fracture parameters of split-tension cube specimen are compared with those obtained for compact tension specimen. Finally, the influence of the width of the load-distribution of split-tension cube specimen on the double-K fracture parameters for laboratory size specimens is investigated. The input data required for determining double-K fracture parameters for both the specimen geometries are obtained using well known version of the Fictitious Crack Model.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.325-333
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• 2008

This study evaluated the mechanical performance, shrinkage crack and fire resistance of hybrid fiber (blended steel and polypropylene fiber with different diameter and length) reinforced concrete at elevated temperature. The compressive, splitting tensile, flexural, plastic shrinkage test were conducted to the evaluate the mechanical properties and the resistance of shrinkage crack. Also, the surface investigation, reduction rate of mass and residual compressive test were performed to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties after 400$^{\circ}C$, 600$^{\circ}C$, 800$^{\circ}C$ and 1,200$^{\circ}C$ exposure. Test results showed that the hybrid fiber reinforced concrete improved the mechanical performance, shrinkage crack and fire resistance. The reduction of performance with a temperature change were high at the temperature of $600\sim800^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.791-797
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• 2011

This paper presents the test results of 12 direct tensile specimens to investigate the effect of cover thickness on the tension stiffening behavior in axially loaded reinforced concrete tensile members. Six concrete cover thickness ratios are selected as a main experimental parameter. The results showed that, as cover thickness became thinner, more extensive split cracking along the reinforcement occurred and transverse crack spacing became smaller, making the effective tensile stiffness of thin specimens at the stabilized cracking stage to be much smaller than that of thick specimens. This observation is not implemented in the current design provisions, in which the significant reduction of tension stiffening effect can be achieved by applying thinner cover thickness. Based on the present results, a modified tension stiffening factor is proposed to account for the effect of the cover thickness.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.3
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• pp.351-363
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• 2020

Based on the dynamic tests of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) short columns confined by the hoop reinforcement, the dynamic failure mechanism and the mechanical parameters related to the constitutive relation of confined recycled aggregate concrete (CRAC) were investigated thoroughly. The fracturing sections were relatively flat and smooth at higher strain rates rather than those at a quasi-static strain rate. With the increasing stirrup volume ratio, the crack mode is transited from splitting crack to slipping crack constrained with large transverse confinement. The compressive peak stress, peak strain, and ultimate strain increase with the increase of stirrup volume ratio, as well as the increasing strain rate. The dynamic confining increase factors of the compressive peak stress, peak strain, and ultimate strain increase by about 33%, 39%, and 103% when the volume ratio of hoop reinforcement is increased from 0 to 2%, but decrease by about 3.7%, 4.2%, and 9.1% when the stirrup spacing is increased from 20mm to 60mm, respectively. This sentence is rephrased as follows: When the stirrup volume ratios are up to 0.675%, and 2%, the contributions of the hoop confinement effect to the dynamic confining increase factors of the compressive peak strain and the compressive peak stress are greater than those of the strain rate effect, respectively. The dynamic confining increase factor (DCIF) models of the compressive peak stress, peak strain, and ultimate strain of CRAC are proposed in the paper. Through the confinement of the hoop reinforcement, the ductility of RAC, which is generally slightly lower than that of NAC, is significantly improved.

• 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 Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1991.10a
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• pp.29-32
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• 1991

It is well known that the fatigue damage process in composite materials is very complicated due to complex failure mechanisms that comprise debounding, matrix cracking, delamination and fiber splitting of laminates. Therefore, the residual strength, instead of a single dominant crack length, is chosen to describe the criticality of the damage accumulated in the sublaminate. In this study, two models for residual strength degradation established by Yang-Liu and Tanimoto-Ishikawa that are capable of predicting the statistical distribution of both fatigue life and residual strength have been investigated and compared. Statistical methodologies for fatigue life prediction of composite materials have frequently been adopted. However, these are usually based on a simplified probabilistic approach considering only the variation of fatigue test data. The main object of this work is to propose a fatigue reliability analysis model which accounts for the effect of all sources of variation such as fabrication and workmanship, error in the fatigue model, load itself, etc. The proposed model is examined using the previous experimental data of GFRP and it is shown that it can be practically applied for fatigue problems in composite materials.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.719-724
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• 2001

In this study, wedge splitting tensile test(WST) using dye penetration method was carried out to investigate cracking criterion and fracture characteristics of concrete. For the this purpose, three levels of compressive strength of 180, 300 and 600 kgf/$\textrm{cm}^2$ and five testing age of 1, 3, 7, 14 and 28 days were selected as test variables. The specimen was loaded in a controlled manner and then dye was inserted at the load of 40%, 70% of the presumed peak load and at the load of 90% just after peak load. The fracture process zone was measured at each load step of a specimen. Test results were compared with analytic results by linear elastic fracture mechanics(LEFM) and numerical results through fictitious crack model(FCM) and finite element method(FEM).