DYMAT 2009 (2009) 671677

EDP Sciences, 2009

DOI: 10.1051/dymat/2009095

Fiber-reinforced ultra-high performance concrete under

tensile loads
O. Millon1, W. Riedel1, K. Thoma1, E. Fehling2 and M. Noldgen3

1
Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, EMI, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
2
University of Kassel Department of Civil Engineering, 34125 Kassel, Germany
3
Schuessler-Plan Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, 40470 Dusseldorf, Germany

Abstract. The present paper deals with the material behavior of ultra-high performance concrete
(UHPC) at high strain rates up to 160 1/s. Static and dynamic material-parameters and the fracture
behavior of a ber-reinforced ultra-high performance concrete (mixture B4Q) were investigated. The
material shows static compression strength up to 180 MPa and static tension strength up to 9 MPa.
With the help of Hopkinson Bar experiments, dynamic material-properties like Youngs modulus,
tensile strength and fracture energy are determined. Furthermore, it was possible to record the fail-
ure process in small time-steps by application of a new method of fracture observation. Based on
the measured material-parameters, the paper provides Dynamic Increase Factors (DIF) of
Youngs modulus, tensile strength and fracture energy to gure out the dierences between UHPC,
conventional and high strength concrete and the potential of the new building material.

1. INTRODUCTION

Todays constructions tend to be higher, more ligree and more exible in use. As well, they were
seen to be loaded by new load cases, like dynamic loads from explosions or impacts.
Ultra-high performance concrete is one of the youngest materials within concrete research. Its
investigation oers new applications in the construction of, e.g., high-rise buildings and widely
spanned bridges. For an ecient use of UHPC, the material behavior has to be known. Especially
in the constructions mentioned above, the consideration of dynamic loads has an increasing
inuence to the calculation of these structures.
The present paper is focused on dynamic loads on an existing ultra-high performance concrete.
The experiments may be seen as one part of an investigation to determine material-parameters for
a material model used in numerical simulations.
As a new construction material, UHPC is still under investigation concerning static, dynamic
and long-time investigation. First results are reported in [4]. However, dynamic behavior of ultra-
high performance concrete and investigations eorts on it are very rarely published.

2. TESTING PROCEDURE
2.1 Test conguration and specimens

To investigate the material-properties at high strain rates, Hopkinson Bar experiments oer a
good possibility to receive exact parameters. With the spallation conguration, which was
established by Schuler at EMI [1] and [6], it is possible to measure dynamic Youngs modulus,
tensile strength and fracture energy for brittle materials.
The specimens require a diameter of 75 mm and a length of 250 mm. The experiments were
carried out in two geometrical congurations. Notched specimens were tested to measure fracture
energy in a predetermined fracture plane. Across this plane, failure process is monitored with an
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optical high-speed extensometer to obtain an accurate displacement-time-relation with small time-

steps. On the other hand, plain specimens without notches were used to measure Youngs modulus
and tensile strength in a one-dimensional stress-state.

2.2 Material

Experiments on ultra-high performance concrete with 1.0-Vol.-% steel-bers were investigated.

The mixture B4Q, shown in Table 1, was established by the University of Kassel [3].

Table 1. Mixture of ultra-high performance concrete with 1.0-Vol.-% steel-bers.

Components Mass [kg*mx3]
Cement CEM I 52.5 R HS NA 660
Water 162
Basalt-split (2/8) 612
Quartz-sand (0.125/0.5) 363
Fine quartz 463
Silica fume 180
Superplasticizer 30.4
Steel-bers 9/0.15 mm 78

2.3 Method

The method and the evaluation of Hopkinson Bar experiments are stated detailed by Schuler et al.
in [1], [2] and [6]. The investigations on ultra-high performance concrete follow the same
procedure. The focus of this paper is set to the experimental results and its comparisons to
conventional and high performance concrete.
The determination of the dynamic Youngs modulus can be determined from Equation (2),
based on the theory of wave-propagation in elastic materials.
s
E
CL Edyn C2L
r 1; 2
r
It is assumed, that the wave-propagation velocity is constant. Strain-time-histories are
measured in the places of the specimens strain gauges, the acceleration gauge and the end of the
incident bar. The time of the wave-propagation is determined by shifting the strain-time-signal of
the free end into the strain-time-recording of the strain gauges as shown in Figure 1 (left). CL is
determined as distance divided by time shift. r describes the material density.
Using the momentum equation and the free surface approximation for the particle velocity, the
tensile strength of a brittle material can be calculated with the help of Equation (3).
1
ft;dyn
r
CL
Dupb 3
2
The velocity of the free surface or pull-back velocity Dupb is determined by stepwise integration
of the acceleration-time-recording to get a velocity-time-signal, shown in Figure 1 (right).
The dynamic fracture energy is the required energy to lead the material to failure. It is
calculated from the energy dissipation during spallation.
Z Z
dI 0
Gf Fdd
d dt Gf Dv
m
d0 4; 5
dt
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upb

Figure 1. Displacement of the strain-time-signal (left), particle-velocity-time history (right).

The determination of the fracture energy bases on the change in the fragments velocities
during crack-opening. The fragments velocities at the beginning of the spallation are determined
analytically by using the elastic wave theory. The velocities of the fragments during crack-opening
are measured by an optical high-speed extensometer (Figure 3). Equation (4) leads to the simple
Equation (5), calculating the fracture energy. dk is the crack-opening velocity and Dv the reduction
of the velocity of fragment 2 between crack-initiation and crack-opening.

3. RESULTS
The static investigations, except the splitting test, were carried out by the University of Kassel.
The results are shown in Table 3.
Table 2. Results of all dynamic experiments on ultra-high performance concrete.
Density Youngs Tensile strength Strain rate [sx1] Fracture energy
[kg*dmx3] modulus [MPa] [MPa] [N*mx1]
Sample 1 2460 51320 41.78 110.7
Sample 2 2456 51220 47.24 163.9
Sample 3 2454 57920 39.12 114.5
Sample 4 2424 51970 42.89 129.4
Sample 5 2455 144.5 9018
Sample 6 2463 144.3 12910
Sample 7 2452 129.2 14910
Sample 8 2513 57510 46.47 131.0
Sample 9 2535 58020 45.87 137.4
Sample 10 2522 57430 51.57 98.4
Sample 11 2535 57710 50.61 135.4
Sample 12 2509 129.3 7525
Sample 13 2506 164.0 11410
Average 55387 (3021) 45.69 (4,00) 11150 (2645)

Measuring static tensile strength on brittle materials can only be done with large experimental
eorts. Using Equation (6) leads to a calculated static tensile strength in Table 3.
q
fctm 0:3
f 2ck
3
6

The experiments show, that the dynamic Youngs modulus of ber-reinforced ultra-high
performance concrete increases moderately by 4% compared to high performance concrete but
signicantly compared to conventional concrete (35%). Static and dynamic Youngs modulus
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Table 3. Mean static reference values for UHPC and Dynamic Increase Factors (DIF).
Static reference Dynamic value DIF
Compressive strength cylinder MPa 173.8
Compressive strength cube MPa 187.8
Youngs modulus MPa 53350 55387 1.04
Tensile strength (tension test) MPa 6.76
Tensile strength (splitting test) MPa 9.21
Tensile strength (calculated) MPa 9.34 45.69 4.89
Fracture energy N*mx1 10030 11150 1.11

Figure 2. DIF for Youngs modulus, tensile strength and fracture energy for conventional concrete (CC),
high-performance concrete (HPC) and ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC).

show similar values. A rate dependency was not found. The dynamic tensile strength and its
tendency compared to the considered concrete materials are of more interest. A strong increase in
the dynamic tensile strength of ber-reinforced UHPC compared to HPC was observed. The
tensile strength of UHPC rises more than by the factor of 2 up to 43 MPa. A signicant
 DYMAT 2009 675

strengthening eect due to strain rates around 120 1/s was observed as well leading to a DIF
around 5. With this, the same rate eect occurs as for conventional concrete. The fracture
energy of UHPC shows low strain rate eects in comparison to conventional and high
performance concrete. Although the DIF is around 1.1, the absolute average value with
11150 N/m is 3 times higher than ber-reinforced HPC and 29 times higher than conventional
concrete.
The development of the measurement technique is as important as the investigation of
materials. The observation and the analysis of the fracture process during dynamic loading of a
material are challenging in the investigation of brittle materials. To determine the fragments
velocities, high-speed video-recordings were used in the past. With the employment of optical
high-speed extensometers, the motion of the fragments can be recorded separately. By xing the
extensometer on one point of each fragment, the covered distance of the fragments during
spallation can be measured (Figure 3). It is turned out that both fragments undergo acceleration at
the beginning of the spallation process leading to a constant but dierent velocity of each
fragment during the spallation process. The recordings of the fragments motions during
spallation are shown in Figure 3. The time of spallation beginning (T1) can be determined exactly.
The failure process and the crack-opening, respectively, are observed with this new method
leading to a more exact determination of the fracture energy. During the spallation process,
both fragments follow a nearly linear distance-time law with constant velocities. The
spallation process is nished when both fragments are completely separated. Leutbecher [10]
identied a maximal theoretical crack width. Based on static tensile tests, it is dened as half
the ber length (d3). T3 states this moment of static separation. The measured dynamic
crack width seems to be smaller. Values in a range of 1/6 to 1/2 of the ber length were observed
(T2, d2). Following the observations, further investigations in the dynamic ber pull-out and
the analysis of the fracture surfaces are required to describe the fracture process under dynamic
loads.

Figure 3. Displacement-time signals of fragments measured by high-speed extensometer, d2 last dynamic

correlation, d3 maximal static crack-opening according to [10].
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4. DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY

The phenomenology of the dynamic behavior of ber-reinforced ultra-high performance concrete

measuring dynamic Youngs modulus, tensile strength and fracture energy was analyzed in this
paper. Hopkinson Bar experiments are reported in Table 4, which states the dierences of the
material-parameters of conventional, high performance and ultra-high performance concrete.

Table 4. Material-parameters of UHPC, HPC and conventional concrete at strain rates 2*101 to 1*102 1/s.
Concrete Youngs modulus [MPa] Tensile strength [MPa] Fracture energy
[N*mx1]
Concrete C 30/37 39600 15.50 380
HPC C100/115 51400 19.80 480
UHPC 55400 45.70 11150

UHPC oers a 3 times higher dynamic tensile strength and a 29 times higher fracture energy
compared to conventional concrete.
A new optical measurement technique recording the fracture process leading to more exact
values for the fracture energy is introduced. However, further investigations are required to
determine the inuence of the bers to the material-parameters. As well, further experiments and
microscopic analysis are necessary to describe the fracture behavior of UHPC.

Acknowldgements
The author is grateful to the University of Kassel, Department of Civil Engineering, for the support in
production of the UHPC specimens and providing the static material parameters.

References

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