Cracking and failure in plain concrete beams

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary This paper describes experiments to determine the loads and the strains at which cracks occur in different concrete mixes; an attempt was also made to investigate whether there is any correlation between these and the measured values of load and strain at failure. Measurements of strain distribution on the tensile surfaces of beams were used to detect the presence of cracks. It was found that the formation of cracks is a gradual process. The early stages are probably due to bond cracks between the aggregates and mortar; a critical stage develops when cracks in the mortar itself link up the existing bond cracks to form a continuous pattern. In each mix, the stress at the critical load shows good agreement with that obtained from tensile splitting tests on cylinders. The strain at the critical load is not constant but varies with the strength of the mix. The load and the strain at failure are influenced by both the strain and the load at the critical stage.
Keywords

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: