Cyclic double punch test as a novel approach to reduce variation in concrete fatigue test results

Abstract

The large scatter of concrete fatigue test results, commonly associated with the variation in concrete strength measurements, is an issue for performance measurements and design. In this study, considering the decreased variations reported for the monotonic Double Punch Test (DPT) in the literature, an experimental study was conducted to see whether DPT can be used to reduce the variation in concrete fatigue tests. For this, monotonic and cyclic 4-point bending test(4PBT)s, as well as DPTs were conducted, and the variations of the test results were compared by doing statistical analyses. The novelty of this study is the employment of DPT to measure the fatigue performance of concrete. Based on the results, cyclic DPT was found to be a promising technique for fatigue performance measurements with its decreased variation compared to the cyclic bending test. The authors believe that the presented paper will be beneficial for the following studies focused on the cyclic loading performance of concrete.

KEYWORDS:

• concrete
• fatigue
• cyclic loading
• double punch test
• bending test
• variation

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Akcansa Cement Industry and Trade Inc., Bogazici Concrete Industry Trade Inc. and SIKA Construction Chemicals Inc. for material supply. The first author would also like to acknowledge the financial support given by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) during his Ph.D. study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).