Quantifying damage level to concrete specimens

• Main Author: Wong, Vicki Wei Qi.
• Other Authors: Fan Sau Cheong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53872
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Concrete is a main construction material and it plays an important role in today’s urbanized society. An increasing amount of people live in buildings made up of such concrete structures. They form a physical layer of protection over people against any forms of external hazard. Since people spend majority of their time in buildings, more research is needed to be done to study the behavior of concrete when it is subjected to any kind of damage be it accidental or purposeful damage. From this research paper the internal crack patterns of concrete would be studied. Grade 35 concrete cubes 100mm in size with 33mm chamfers are being casted. After which, the concrete specimens would be subjected to different levels of strain imposed by a load displacement machine. The load displacement machine enables the concrete to be subjected to strain levels pass its post peak strength. With that the concrete specimens casted are being classified into three different damage levels along the strain-softening portion about the load-displacement curve. By subjecting the casted specimens to different strain levels, it emulates the nature of concrete at different damage level when subjected to hazard. The concrete specimens were then impregnated and cut into slices to allow observations and analysis to be made in regards to the crack patterns that occurred at different damage levels. The internal cracks of concrete at different damage level are subsequently being quantified according to its crack density. With the damage level quantified, future research continuing from this part of the project would use these values to correlate it to the event of breakup upon impacting the ground through experimental investigation.