Strength Values of Cementitious Materials in Bending and Tension Test Methods
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 3
Abstract
A value of tensile strength of cement-based materials is required for the design of pavements, for the analysis of concrete dams to prevent thermal cracking and sometimes for the design of prestressed beams. Cementitious materials exhibit a significant variability in their tensile strength, depending on the test method used. The three common test methods are direct tension, three-point bending, and four-point bending, and it is commonly found that bending tests yield higher strengths than direct tension tests. During this investigation, tests were carried out on cement mortar and concrete for each type of test. A two-parameter Weibull model was found to fit each individual set of data well. For both cement mortar and concrete, the Weibull moduli calculated for the test methods were approximately the same. The Weibull modulus is used to relate the values of strength obtained with different test methods, using the Weibull effective volume concept, the predicted results are in remarkably good agreement with the experimental results.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51178162) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2013B05514) for the financial support.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 3 • March 2014
Pages: 484 - 490
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 6, 2012
Accepted: Apr 28, 2013
Published online: Apr 30, 2013
Discussion open until: Sep 30, 2013
Published in print: Mar 1, 2014
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