Computational Shear Strength of Ultrahigh-Performance API Class H Cement-Silica-Fume Paste Cylinders via Direct Shear Tests
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 9
Abstract
An important type of ultra-high-performance concrete uses the hydrated mixture of the American Petroleum Institute (API) Class H cement and silica fume to produce the required binder. In this investigation a computational methodology is formulated to model the shear strength of this matrix, using the results of standard direct shear tests on ambient-hydrated samples. The procedure relies on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory (VCCTL) for the microstructure-based description of the stiffness of the assumed linear-elastic fully-hydrated brittle paste, and on subsequent finite-element analyses of the cylindrical sample. Computational iterations on the material Poisson’s ratio render the adjusted elastic properties. Convergence on the state of stress at the centroid of the critical element at fracture is attained on agreement with experimentally-complemented well-known theories of failure. The predicted inclination of the failure plane was validated by consistent experimental observations on the test samples at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC).
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Acknowledgments
Permission to publish was granted by the Director, Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory. This investigation was funded by the DOD Army ERDC Military Engineering Research Program: Material Modeling for Force Protection, under the work unit Micro-Structural Synthesis and Property Simulation. The study hinges on the results of the NIST VCCTL predictions on the properties of hydrated cementitious microstructures. The authors gratefully acknowledge this seminal research work.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 9 • September 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 25, 2016
Accepted: Jan 24, 2017
Published ahead of print: Apr 25, 2017
Published online: Apr 26, 2017
Published in print: Sep 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Sep 26, 2017
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