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Fatigue Strength of Concrete

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Fatigue, in the context of materials science and engineering, refers to the weakening or failure of a material caused by repeatedly applied loads, even if these loads are below the strength limit of the material. Fatigue strength in concrete is a critical property that influences its durability and longevity. Concrete can fail in two ways due to fatigue. Static fatigue or creep rupture occurs under a constant load or one that increases slowly. The other failure mode is due to cyclical or...

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Fatigue

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Full-field Strain Measurements for Microstructurally Small Fatigue Crack Propagation Using Digital Image Correlation Method

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Fatigue-Induced Damage in High-Strength Concrete Microstructure.

Nadja Oneschkow¹, Tim Scheiden¹, Markus Hüpgen¹

¹Institute of Building Materials Science, Leibniz University Hannover, Appelstraße 9a, 30167 Hannover, Germany.

Materials (Basel, Switzerland)

|October 13, 2021

Summary

This study reveals that concrete fatigue damage occurs continuously at the microscale, with two distinct damage mechanisms observed depending on stress levels. These mechanisms are difficult to see with standard imaging techniques.

Keywords:

SEM acoustic emission compressive cyclic loading damage mechanism high-strength concrete light microscopy strain development

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Civil Engineering
Structural Health Monitoring

Background:

Concrete fatigue is a critical factor in structural longevity.
Understanding microstructural damage mechanisms under fatigue loading is essential for predicting material behavior.
Macroscopic indicators like strain and acoustic emissions (AE-hits) are commonly used to assess concrete damage.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the behavior of high-strength concrete under compressive fatigue loading at two distinct maximum stress levels.
To evaluate macroscopic damage indicators (strain, AE-hits) alongside microstructural analyses.
To identify and differentiate underlying fatigue damage mechanisms.

Main Methods:

Compressive fatigue loading of high-strength concrete specimens.
Monitoring of macroscopic damage indicators: strain and acoustic emission hits (AE-hits).
Microstructural analysis using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
Application of Gaussian mixture modelling for clustering AE-hits.

Main Results:

Acoustic emission hits clustered into two distinct groups corresponding to the applied maximum stress levels.
Microstructural analysis revealed limited visible cracks, even near failure, suggesting damage occurs at micro/sub-microscales.
Fatigue loading altered bluish impregnated areas in the mortar matrix, indicating ongoing microscale damage.
Two different damage mechanisms were identified, pronounced differently based on stress levels, potentially involving compressive and tensile damage.

Conclusions:

Concrete fatigue damage is a continuous process occurring at the micro/sub-microscale, often undetectable by mesoscale imaging.
Two distinct fatigue damage mechanisms are active in concrete under compressive fatigue loading, influenced by maximum stress levels.
The findings suggest a combination of diffuse compressive damage and localized tensile damage contributes to fatigue failure.