Analyses of the fatigue behavior of carbon short-fiber-reinforced concrete (CSFRC) under tension and flexion

• Published in: Construction & building materials 2024-11, Vol.453, p.139058, Article 139058
• Main Authors: Džolan, Ante, Fischer, Oliver, Niedermeier, Roland
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon short-fiber-reinforced concrete (CSFRC); Fatigue behavior; Flexion; Harmonic load; Tension
• ISSN: 0950-0618
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2024.139058

Carbon short-fiber-reinforced concrete (CSFRC) is a novel material with superior mechanical properties, including enhanced compressive, tensile, and flexural tensile strengths compared to conventional concrete. Additionally, CSFRC exhibits pseudo-ductile behavior under tensile and flexural stresses, allowing it to sustain significant damage before failure. This characteristic suggests that CSFRC may also perform well under dynamic loading, making it a subject of extensive research interest. This study aims to advance understanding of CSFRC’s fatigue behavior under harmonic loading in both tension and flexion. To achieve this, 16 tension tests and 20 flexion tests were conducted. The results indicate that CSFRC demonstrates excellent fatigue resistance, with superior performance in tension compared to flexion, highlighting potential limitations in shear resistance. Four distinct loading procedures were applied, each potentially affecting fatigue performance. For data analysis, three measurement techniques were employed: strain gauge strain measurements, digital image correlation, and voltage measurements. Results from these techniques showed strong agreement, underscoring the robustness of the findings. •A topic of this paper is an analysis of the fatigue behavior of carbon short fiber reinforce concrete (CSFRC) under tension and flexion. For the analysis of this behavior, the measurement of strains by strain gauges and digital image correlation was carried out. These results were also compared with those obtained by measuring the development of voltage (electrical protentional difference) during the application of cyclic load.•Carbon short fiber reinforced concrete (CSFRC) is novel building material that, unlike the conventional concrete, has higher tensile strength, and shows high ductile behavior. This behavior is abled by bridging the cracks with short carbon fibers.•The results presented in this paper should contribute to better understanding the behavior of this material under harmonic cyclic load. From the results, it can be seen that CSFRC has better fatigue behavior under tension than under flexion.•Four different procedures of the application of the cyclic load were used. The result presented show that the material has better behavioral performances when a determined number of cycles with lower upper load level precedes the cycles with the higher upper load levels than for the matter when the load with higher upper load level is applied at the ver