Damage Process of Roller-Compacted Concrete Based on Combined Action of Freeze–Thaw and Triaxial Compression
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34, Issue 9
Abstract
Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) structures are often destroyed by coupling damage of freeze–thaw and complex loads in cold conditions, resulting in degradation of the mechanical properties of the RCC. In this study, the failure process of freeze–thaw RCC in the triaxial compression test and the law of crack development were studied through a combination of tests and the discrete-element method (DEM). The results showed that the freeze–thaw damage degree of the RCC presents three different stages: (1) growth, (2) slow growth, and (3) rapid growth phases. It was found that 125 cycles can be regarded as a critical point of RCC freeze–thaw damage, beyond which the damage degree increases sharply. With the increasing number of freezing–thawing cycles, the brittle failure weakened and the failure patterns became increasingly severe. The cracks on the failure surface mainly passed through the cement mortar and interfacial transition zone, whereas the coarse aggregate was rarely damaged. The peak strain was regarded as the critical point for the damage of freezing–thawing cycles coupled with triaxial compression. Before the peak strain, microcrack growth of the RCC was not obvious, and the coupling damage was relatively weak. As the microcrack approached the peak strain, it grew rapidly and the coupling damage increased remarkably.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51879217).
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Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34 • Issue 9 • September 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Aug 18, 2021
Accepted: Dec 10, 2021
Published online: Jun 16, 2022
Published in print: Sep 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Nov 16, 2022
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Cited by
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