Fracture Mechanics Analysis of High‐Strength Concrete

Abstract

Concrete with compressive strength up to 140 MPa (20,000 psi) can now be economically produced. For these high‐strength concretes it has been shown that one cannot use the same empirical relationships between compressive strength and other properties such as splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, shear strength, and bond strength as those currently being used, and different relationships for high‐strength concrete have been proposed. In this paper, a fracture‐mechanics‐based theoretical model is used to predict various experimentally observed trends for high‐strength concrete. The size‐independent fracture parameters needed for this model can be derived from a single test. The proposed fracture‐mechanics‐based model satisfactorily predicts the variation of uniaxial tensile strength, splitcylinder strength, and modulus of rupture with compressive strength up to 110 MPa (16,000 psi). The relatively linear behavior of high‐strength concrete is also predicted by the model.