The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Generation and Interaction of Compressive Stress-Induced Microcracks in Concrete

Nemati, Kamran M.

UCB/SEMM-1994/19, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1994-12, 160 pages (500/C23/94/19)

Cylindrical specimens of normal and high-strength concrete were subjected to testing under uniaxial and confined compression. An alloy with a low melting point was used as a pore fluid. At the stress or strain of interest, this alloy was solidified to preserve the stress-induced microcracks as they exist under load. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to capture images from cross sections of the concrete specimens. These images were used to study the generation, orientation, density, length, and branching of the compressive induced microcracks and the effect of confinement on microcrack behavior. Three micromechanical models, the differential scheme, the Mori-Tanaka method, and a crack growth simulation model were used to examine experimentally obtained data against the theorectically developed micromechanical models.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-94-19.pdf (9 MB)