Strength and damage of concrete under high triaxial loading
Résumé
This study focuses on identifying concrete behavior under severe loading (near field detonation or ballistic impacts). In order to reproduce high stress levels with well-controlled loading paths, static tests are carried out on concrete samples by mean of a very high-capacity triaxial press. Experimental results indicate a sizeable change in concrete behavior with confining pressure. At low pressure values, the concrete exhibits brittle behavior with failure caused by a localized damage mechanism. In contrast, at high confining pressures, the concrete becomes a ductile material, and failure is associated with diffuse material damage. These tests also show an evolution of the elastic characteristics of concrete. A numerical modeling of these previous experiments is performed at a mesoscopic scale. It provides a reproduction of the main characteristics of concrete behavior under high confinement, both qualitatively and quantitatively. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Mots clés
Ballistic impact
Brittle behavior
Concrete behavior
Concrete samples
Confining pressures
Ductile materials
Elastic characteristic
High confinement
High confining pressure
High stress
High-capacity
Loading path
Localized damage
Low pressures
Main characteristics
Material damages
Mesoscale modeling
Mesoscopic scale
Near fields
Numerical modeling
Static tests
Triaxial loading
Triaxial test
Young's Modulus
Concretes
Explosives
Loading
Rock pressure
Stress analysis
Behavioral research