Fracture Behavior of Basalt Fiber-Reinforced Airport Pavement Concrete at Different Strain Rates

Abstract

As a commonly used surface structure for airport runways, concrete slabs are subjected to various complex and random loads for a long time, and it is necessary to investigate their fracture performance at different strain rates. In this study, three-point bending fracture tests were conducted using ordinary performance concrete (OPC) and basalt fiber-reinforced airport pavement concrete (BFAPC) with fiber volume contents of 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6%, at five strain rates (10−6 s−1, 10−5 s−1, 10−4 s−1, 10−3 s−1, and 10−2 s−1). Considering parameters such as the peak load, initial cracking load, double K fracture toughness, fracture energy, and critical crack expansion rate, the effects of the fiber volume content and strain rate on the fracture performance of concrete were systematically studied. The results indicate that these fracture parameters of OPC and BFAPC have an obvious strain rate dependence; in particular, the strain rate has a positive linear relationship with peak load and fracture energy, and a positive exponential relationship with the critical crack growth rate. Compared with OPC, the addition of basalt fiber (BF) can improve the fracture performance of airport pavement concrete, to a certain extent, where 0.4% and 0.6% fiber content were the most effective in enhancing the fracture properties of concrete under strain rates of 10−6–10−5 s−1 and 10−4–10−2 s−1, respectively. From the point of view of the critical crack growth rate, it is shown that the addition of BF can inhibit the crack growth of concrete. In this study, the fracture properties of BFAPC were evaluated at different strain rates, providing an important basis for the application of BFAPC in airport pavement.

Investigation of the performance of cement mortar incorporating lithium slag as a super-fine aggregate

“…The stress-strain curve, a relationship model for concrete structure non-linear analysis and ultimate bearing capacity analysis, is an important basis for studying the bearing capacity and deformation of a concrete structure (Guo et al, 2022). Figure 10 shows the stress-strain curve of mortar at different replacement percentages and curing ages.…”

Effect of using 3D-printed shell structure for reinforcement of ultra-high-performance concrete

“…Steel reinforcement is also costly and has a significant carbon footprint [2]. Utilizing fibers is yet another method for enhancing the properties of cementitious composites [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. However, controlling how the fibers in fiber-reinforced composites are distributed isn't easy.…”