An experimental investigation on the influence of maximum size of coarse aggregate, cement and coarse aggregate contents on the size of fracture process zone (FPZ) in high-strength concrete (HSC) is reported. Wide ranges of concrete mixes were designed to vary…
An experimental investigation on the influence of maximum size of coarse aggregate, cement and coarse aggregate contents on the size of fracture process zone (FPZ) in high-strength concrete (HSC) is reported. Wide ranges of concrete mixes were designed to vary the compressive strength of concrete between 55 MPa and 80 MPa. Three different maximum sizes of coarse aggregates namely lOmm, 16mm, 20mm and combination of the above three were adopted. The size of FPZ was obtained qualitatively using ultrasonic pulse velocity technique. Single edge notched compact tension specimens (SENCTS) of size 500 mm x 500 mm x 80 mm with 250 mm edge notch subjected to uniform far field stress were used. It has been observed that the size of FPZ was influenced by the size of coarse aggregate. The size of FPZ increases as the maxi- mum size of coarse aggregate increases up to 16 mm size and then tend to decreases with aggregate size. The size of FPZ was in the order of the magnitude of the size of coarse aggregate. It seems that the FPZ in HSC is localized indicating possible application of LEFM to HSC. Further, the FPZ decreases as the cement content increases, and relatively higher values of FPZ have been observed at higher coarse aggregate contents.