Slow Crack Growth in Cement Composites

The resistance to crack growth in mortar, concrete and fiber reinforced concrete was studied by testing double torsion and double cantilever speciments. R-curves (plots of strain energy release rate vs. crack extension) were obtained from the test data. To include the inelastic strain energy absorbed during the crack extension, the definition of the strain energy release rate was modified. It was found that R-curves for mortar and concrete were similar for both double torsion and double cantilever speciments. R-curves were sensitive to the volume and size of aggregates and to the presence of fibers. It appears that R-curves can be a useful specimen-geometry-independent parameter for chracterizing the fracture behavior of cementitious composites. However, the effects of differing crack-opening displacement on the strain energy release rate must be considered; especially for fiber reinforced concrete.