This paper describes an experimental investigation of the shear behavior of beams consisting of steel Reinforced Engineered Cementitious Composites (R/ECC). This study investigates and quantifies the effect of ECC's strain hardening and multiple cracking behavior on the shear capacity of beams loaded in shear. The experimental program consists of R/ECC beams with short (8 mm) randomly distributed Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) fiber and conventional Reinforced Concrete (R/C) counterparts for comparison with varying shear reinforcement arrangements. Beams were loaded until failure while a Digital Image Correlation (DIC) measurement technique was used to measure surface displacements and crack formation. The shear crack mechanisms of R/ECC are described in detail based on findings of DIC measurements and can be characterized by an opening and sliding of the cracks. Multiple micro-cracks developed in a diagonal arrangement between the load and support points due to the strain-hardening response of ECC in tension. The strain-hardening response strongly influenced the shear response of the beam specimen.
Abstract. This paper describes an investigation of fiber reinforced cementitious composites in terms of their behavior under tensile and flexural loading. Flexural testing and subsequent derivation of the tensile stress-deformation response from the flexural test data are preferred in the assessment of the tensile properties of Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites (FRCC) over the direct measurement of the tensile behavior because of the more convenient test setup and ease of specimen preparation. Three and four-point bending tests and round determinate panel test were carried out to evaluate the flexural response of FRCC. The assumptions made in the inverse analysis on the formation of cracking suggested in many standardized evaluation methods and established correlation methods have a strong influence on the results of the conversion from flexure to tension... In this paper, the formation of cracking and crack development has been quantitatively documented using a digital image correlation (DIC) system to investigate the validity of the commonly made assumptions.
Leakage from cementitious structures with a retaining function can have devastating environmental consequences. Leaks can originate from cracks within the hardened cementitious material that is supposed to seal the structure off from the surrounding environment. Bioactive self-healing concretes containing bacteria capable of microbially inducing CaCO3 precipitation have been suggested to mitigate the healing of such cracks before leaking occurs. An important parameter determining the biocompatibility of concretes and cements is the pH environment. Therefore, a novel ratiometric pH optode imaging system based on an inexpensive single-lens reflex (SLR) camera was used to characterize the pH of porewater within cracks of submerged hydrated oil and gas well cement. This enabled the imaging of pH with a spatial distribution in high resolution (50 μm per pixel) and a gradient of 1.4 pH units per 1 mm. The effect of fly ash substitution and hydration time on the pH of the cement surface was evaluated by this approach. The results show that pH is significantly reduced from pH >11 to below 10 with increasing fly ash content as well as hydration time. The assessment of bioactivity in the cement was evaluated by introducing superabsorbent polymers with encapsulated Bacillus alkalinitrilicus endospores into the cracks. The bacterial activity was measured using oxygen optodes, which showed the highest bacterial activity with increasing amounts of fly ash substitution in the cement, correlating with the decrease in the pH. Overall, our results demonstrate that the pH of well cements can be reliably measured and modified to sustain the microbial activity.
The characterization of the tensile behavior of cementitious materials has been a long-standing research topic and a general consensus on how to accomplish this task has not yet been reached. Many standardized tests are available but each with different test set-up and prescriptions on the definition of measured and derived parameters, including toughness, elastic properties and strength. This paper discusses a number of test procedures for selected material properties including tension and flexure. A comparative experimental study was carried out using two distinct fiber reinforced cementitious composites with strain hardening and strain softening behavior. Digital Image Correlation was utilized in the experimental program to detect and quantify the formation of cracks. Results show that the different test methodologies valuate specific aspects of material performance. The outcome of these evaluation procedures is compared and critically analyzed
This paper presents an approach for evaluating the horizontal stresses that develop in geotechnical Direct Simple Shear (DSS) tests through the use of high-resolution distributed fiber optic sensing. For this aim, fiber optics were embedded in 3D printed rings used for confining the soil in the test procedure. An analytical approach linking the measured spatially-distributed strain profile and the internal soil-ring contact stresses is developed in the paper. The method is based on representation of the contact stresses by a Fourier series expansion, and determining the coefficients of the series by minimizing the difference between the measured strain and the analytical strain within the linear elastic ring. The minimization problem results in a linear set of equations that can easily be solved for a given measurement. The approach is demonstrated on a set of drained DSS tests on clean sand specimens. Stress paths using the evaluated horizontal stresses are plotted together with Mohr circles at failure. These illustrate how, in these specific tests, the horizontal stress increases and principal stress direction rotates, until failure occurs along horizontal planes.
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