https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-02628-5
Regular Article
Compressive behaviour of dam concrete at higher strain rates
European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC), European Laboratory for Structural Assessment (ELSA), via E. Fermi 2749, Ispra (VA), 21027 Italy
a e-mail: alessio.caverzan@jrc.ec.europa.eu
Received: 24 August 2015
Revised: 5 February 2016
Published online: 18 March 2016
The mechanical behaviour of concrete when subjected to impact or blast has still many aspects requiring further study. Dam concrete is characterized by large coarse aggregates, hence large specimen sizes are needed in order to study a representative volume of the material. Exploiting an innovative equipment, based on Hopkinson bar techniques, the dynamic behaviour of concrete of 64 mm maximum aggregate size has been investigated. Direct dynamic compression tests have been performed on medium and large size cylindrical samples. Full stress-strain curves have been obtained, which have allowed the estimation of fracturing energies and of the relevant dynamic increase factor. The experimental campaign has also included a reference standard concrete in order to highlight the peculiarity of the dam concrete at high strain rates and to validate the transition of this type of testing to very large specimens.
© The Author(s) 2016
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
