Investigation of ultra-high performance concrete under static and blast loads

Conventional concrete works as an important construction material. However, conventional concrete is known to be brittle and prone to tensile failure and cracks. To overcome such defects and improve the dynamic performance of concrete against extreme loading conditions, concrete with different additions and formulae have been developed. In a recent study, to develop ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) material with better strength and crack control ability, super fine aggregates with high pozzolanic effect were mixed into the steel fibre reinforced concrete instead of the traditional graded coarse aggregates. Furthermore, to achieve high early age strength, nanoscale additives which can accelerate the hydration process of the ordinary Portland cement were also introduced into the concrete composite. A series of uniaxial compression and four-point bending tests had been performed in the laboratory to get the material properties of this innovative concrete material. Great improvement of the concrete uniaxial compressive strength and flexural tensile strength was observed. Field blast tests were carried out on columns made of this UHPC material. Superior blast resistance performance was observed. In the current study, based on the available test data, numerical models are developed and numerical simulations are carried out. The simulation results are found to comply well with the experimental results

Effect of the displacement rate and inclination angle in steel fiber pullout tests

This paper summarizes the results obtained in an experimental campaign on the effect of the displacement pullout rate and the inclination angle of the steel fiber pullout tests. For that purpose, specimens were obtained from a self-compacting concrete with a compressive strength of 86 MPa. In the experimental program, hooked-end steel fibers of 0.75 mm diameter and 60 mm length were used. Tests were executed with both hooked-end fibers, and smooth fibers obtained from the former by cutting the hooked end. For both type of fibers, their embedment length into concrete was 20 mm, and the influence of fiber inclination angle toward the load direction was investigated by adopting values of 0∘, 30∘ and 60∘. The tests were performed at displacement rates of 0.01, 0.1 and 1 mm/s. The results have shown that the peak pullout load increased with the inclination angle, in particular for the smooth series. Furthermore, higher displacement rates led to a higher energy absorption capacity for the pullout of the smooth fibers, while the energy absorption remained almost stable for hooked-end fibers.project BIA2015-68678-C2-1-R. M. Tarifa appreciates the financial support from the Department of Applied Mechanics and Project Engineering, UCLM (2018), and from the Programa propio de I+D+i de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid para realizar estancias de investigación internacional igual o superior a un mes (2019), to do two stays at the University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal. E. Poveda acknowledges the funding from the International Campus of Excellence CYTEMA and the University of Castilla-La Mancha, throughout Ayudas para estancias en universidades y centros de investigación en el extranjero en 2019 en el ámbito del plan propio de investigación susceptibles de cofinanciación por el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), Programa 010100021 to fund her stays in the University of Minho during 2018 and 2019, respectively. The authors thank the support of the Department of Civil Engineering and the Laboratory of the Structural Division (LEST), University of Minh