The aim of the present study is to identify the concrete behavior under severe dynamical load- ing (explosions or ballistic impacts). This paper presents the effect of both the saturation degree and the wa- ter-cement ratio on the concrete behavior…
The aim of the present study is to identify the concrete behavior under severe dynamical load- ing (explosions or ballistic impacts). This paper presents the effect of both the saturation degree and the wa- ter-cement ratio on the concrete behavior under static triaxial loading. The tests are done using a press with high capacities: confining pressure up to 650MPa and axial stress up to 2.3GPa. The test results show that the saturation degree has a major influence on the concrete deviatoric behavior. The strength of dried concrete strongly increases with the confining pressure whereas it is a constant for saturated samples beyond a confin- ing pressure of 100MPa. The results also show that the concrete behaves like a granular stacking under high confinement without any influence of the cement paste strength.