Effect of Loading Rate on Tensile and Failure Behavior of Concrete

Three-point bending experiments of concrete beams were conducted under the strain rate range of 10^-6 s^-1 and 1.5 × 10^-3 s^-1. A novel 3D laser scanner, Handy SCAN, was employed to detect the areas of interface, mortar and aggregate on the crack surface after the experiment. In this paper, the inhomogeneity of materials and the inertial effect were considered as the main factors in the strength enhancement of concrete together with a proposed dynamic model. With the obtained experimental results, the initial elastic modulus and tensile strength of concrete showed obvious rate sensitivity. Moreover, an empirical relationship of dynamic increase factor and strain rate was established for the strain rate range of 10^-6 s^-1 and 1.5 × 10^-3 s^-1. The contributions of aggregate and inertia effect to the dynamic enhancement of concrete strength were quantified with respect to the loading rate. The rate effect of concrete obtained by the experiments was verified by the finite element analysis on the mesoscopic scale with the model built by the three-dimensional random aggregate software.