Civil Engineering Research Seminar: The effect of aggregate grading on fracture mechanic of concrete
- When?
- Thursday 26 January 2012, 13:00 to 15:00
- Where?
- University of Surrey, Building AA, Room 40, Floor 03
- Open to:
- Staff, Students
- Speaker:
- Atur Siregar
- Admission price:
- Free entry - no refreshments
Fracture mechanics is the study of the response and failure of structures as a consequence of crack initiation and propagation. One of the fracture parameters used to model the fracture behaviour of structures is specific fracture energy. Fracture behaviour of concrete is greatly influenced by the constituents’ materials used. Thus, the effect of water cement ratio, maximum aggregate size and compressive strength on the failure behaviour of concrete has been investigated, and adopted to estimate specific fracture energy of concrete. Some predicted formulae have been proposed such as CEB-FIP Model Code 1990, the current Bazant’s formula (Bazant and Becq-Giraudon 2002) and CEB-FIP Model Code 2010 (first draft). Those formulae rely on water/cement ratio, maximum diameter of aggregate and compressive strength of hardened concrete, and however those formulae do not consider other influential factors on fracture characteristic. Since the aggregate is largest volume in the concrete, it will contribute significantly on the fracture behaviour of concrete and or reinforced concrete structure. Aggregate grading which dictates aggregate size distribution and then affects the bonding surface area between inclusion (aggregate) and bulk matrix (paste), then, plays a significant role on mechanical and fracture characteristic of concrete.
The aims of this research are to investigate the effect of aggregate grading on fracture mechanic of concrete and hence to refine the estimated fracture energy formula based on response surface method.