Strength and damage of concrete under high triaxial loading

cited By 26; This study focuses on identifying concrete behavior under severe loading (near field detonation or ballistic impacts). In order to reproduce high stress levels with well-controlled loading paths, static tests are carried out on concrete samples by mean of a very high-capacity triaxial press. Experimental results indicate a sizeable change in concrete behavior with confining pressure. At low pressure values, the concrete exhibits brittle behavior with failure caused by a localized damage mechanism. In contrast, at high confining pressures, the concrete becomes a ductile material, and failure is associated with diffuse material damage. These tests also show an evolution of the elastic characteristics of concrete. A numerical modeling of these previous experiments is performed at a mesoscopic scale. It provides a reproduction of the main characteristics of concrete behavior under high confinement, both qualitatively and quantitatively. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.