Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532
DOI 10.1617/s11527-016-0804-x
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Fracture properties of high-strength/high-performance
concrete (HSC/HPC) exposed to high temperature
Kequan Yu . Jiangtao Yu . Zhoudao Lu .
Qingyang Chen
Received: 12 February 2015 / Accepted: 18 January 2016 / Published online: 25 January 2016
Ó RILEM 2016
Abstract An investigation of the residual fracture
properties of high-strength/high-performance con-
crete (C80 and C100) exposed to high temperatures
is reported in this article. Three-point bending test
specimens of 100 mm 9 100 mm 9 515 mm size
were prepared according to the RILEM recommenda-
tion. The three-point bending beams were exposed to
temperatures varying from 200 to 800 °C. The com-
plete load-crack mouth opening displacement curves
and load-deflection curves of the specimen were
worked out after cooling. The fracture toughness,
including the initial and unstable fracture toughness,
fracture energy, and characteristic length, was calcu-
lated. These four parameters were shown to decrease
monotonically with temperature. Other mechanical
properties including the compressive strength, com-
pressive Young’s modulus, and splitting strength of
post-fire specimens were also obtained. The digital
image correlation method was utilized to monitor the
whole fracture process, and the results from the digital
image correlation method fit well with those from the
direct measurements.
Keywords High temperature  High-strength/high-
performance concrete  Fracture properties  Digital
image correlation
K. Yu (&)  J. Yu  Z. Lu  Q. Chen
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University,
Shanghai 200092, China
e-mail: zjzjykq@163.com
1 Introduction
With the development of concrete technology, high-
strength concrete (HSC/HPC) is becoming increas-
ingly popular in practical engineering [1, 13]. By using
HSC/HPC, higher and more complex buildings can be
constructed. However, it is well known that as the
strength increases concrete becomes more brittle.
HSC/HPC is often used in modern complex structures
such as high-rise buildings and long-span bridges,
which are more vulnerable to damage caused by
earthquakes and other disasters. Hence, the fracture
properties of HSC/HPC are more important than those
of normal-strength concrete (NSC) with regard to the
safety assessment and design of modern structures.
As fire still constitutes a tremendous risk to human
society, the fracture properties of HSC/HPC after fire
need to be determined. To date, most studies have
concentrated on the reduced strength or stiffness
(modulus) of HSC/HPC subjected to elevated temper-
atures [9–11, 19, 23]. Some investigations revealed
that HSC/HPC is more vulnerable to fire than NSC
because of the explosive spalling [8, 18, 20, 23]. Only
a few studies have focused on the fracture behavior
parameters (fracture energy and fracture toughness) of
HSC/HPC, which are very useful for the post-fire
safety assessment, structural analysis, and numerical
simulation.
For normal-strength concrete, Yu et al. [32] used
the wedge-splitting method; Bazant [5], Baker [2],
Zhang et al. [35], and Nielsen and Bicanic [21]
4518
conducted three-point bending tests (TPBs) on
notched pre-heated beams. These experiments show
that the fracture energy exhibited an increase-decrease
tendency with increasing temperatures. For high-
strength concrete, Zhang et al. [35–37], and Peng
et al. [22] investigated the effects of temperatures on
the fracture energy of high-performance concrete, and
they found that the fracture energy generally exhibits
an upward tendency with temperature. However, in
those experiments, the highest temperature was only
450 °C, which is far less than the temperature in a
real fire.
On the other hand, the fracture toughness is also an
important fracture parameter to assess the property of
high-strength concrete after exposure to high temper-
atures. Prokopski [26] and Fattah and Hamoush [14]
investigated fracture toughness at both high temper-
ature and after cooling by conducting TPB tests on the
concrete beams. Both experiments demonstrated that
fracture toughness was highly influenced by temper-
ature and decreased steadily with increasing temper-
atures because of the reduction of the peak load of TPB
beams.
At normal temperature, the compressive Young’s
modulus is close to the tensile Young’s modulus.
Hence, the compressive Young’s modulus is used in
the calculation of fracture parameters. However, for
concrete exposed to high temperature, the compressive
and tensile Young’s modulus may be different because
of the existence of micro-cracks induced by the high
temperature and different stress states. It may be
necessary to clarify the difference in these two
Young’s moduli. The tensile Young’s modulus is
calculated from the initial slope load-deflection curves.
The fracture energy is an important parameter to
assess the energy dissipation capacity of concrete
under the tensile stress state. It is a useful input
parameter for numerical simulation. Hence, the resid-
ual fracture energy of high-strength concrete is
necessary for the assessment of residual mechanical
properties of concrete structures.
In this research, the effects of temperature on the
residual fracture behaviors were investigated by
conducting the TPB tests on the notched pre-heated
specimens. The complete load-crack mouth opening
displacement curves (P-CMOD) and load–deflection
curves (P–d) were obtained. During the loading
process, the digital image correlation (DIC) method,
an indirect measurement was utilized to monitor the
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532
whole fracture process, and the results from DIC were
compared with those from the direct measurements.
The residual fracture toughness (including initial
fracture toughness Kini and unstable fracture tough-
ness Kun) and residual fracture energy GF of specimens
were calculated, and their relationships with Tm were
identified. The residual compressive and splitting
strength and residual Young’s modulus were also
measured.
2 Experimental program
2.1 Materials, mix proportions, and test specimens
Two concrete strengths, C80 and C100, were prepared
in the present research. A total of 50 TPB beams with
uniform dimensions (100 mm 9 100 mm 9 515 mm)
according to the RILEM [27] were prepared. The
concrete mix proportions (by weight) are listed in
Table 1. Ordinary Portland cement was mixed with
medium river sand and 10-mm-grade coarse aggregate.
Silica fume was used as a partial replacement material at
approximately 10 % by weight of binder. To avoid
concrete spalling, 0.3 % polypropylene (PP) fiber by
volume was added. The water binder ratio was
controlled at 0.31 and 0.23 for C80 and C100, respec-
tively. The slump of both concretes was 100 mm.
Each specimen had a precut notch with 30 mm
depth and 3 mm thickness. Three thermocouples were
set at the centroid of the cross section near the mid-
span to monitor the thermal field. After demolding, the
specimens were cured at room temperature. Three
standard cube specimens of 150 mm 9 150 mm 9
150 mm for both strengths were cast to determine the
compressive strength at 28 days. The compressive
strengths were 76.5 and 96.5 MPa for C80 and C100,
respectively. Additionally, the tested TPB specimens
were cut to dimensions of 100 mm 9 100 mm 9
200 mm and 100 mm 9 100 mm 9 100 mm to pre-
cisely measure the residual compressive strength
(prism and cube), splitting strength, and residual
Young’s modulus after the specific temperature
treatment.
2.2 Heating regime
Four target temperatures, ranging from 200 to 800 °C
(Tm = 200, 400, 600, and 800 °C) were adopted with
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532 4519

Table 1 Concrete mix proportion and concrete strength at 28 days

Strength Cement Sand Aggregate Silica fume HRWRA Water PP fiber Compressive strength
(MPa) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (150 mm cube) (MPa)

C80 441 615 1194 39 6.7 150 2.7 76.5

C100 590 565 1098 66 9.2 150 2.7 96.5

the ambient temperature as a reference. An electric
furnace with the net dimensions of 600 mm 9
600 mm 9 900 mm was used for heating. The fur-
nace rose at a rate of 6.6 °C/min to the target
temperatures, which were then maintained for another
3 h to obtain a uniform temperature field in the whole
specimen. During the heating process, no concrete
spalling occurred thanks to the melting of PP fibers.
For safety, the specimens were cooled in the furnace
for approximately 24 h. The heating regime is shown
in Fig. 1.
2.3 Testing methodology
In the TPB test, a closed-loop servo-controlled
hydraulic jack with a maximum capacity of 100 kN
was employed. Two clip-on extensometers were fitted
at the mouth and the tip of the notch to measure the
crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) and crack
tip opening displacement (CTOD). The deflection at
the loading point (d) was measured by two LVDTs.
The geometry of the specimen is shown in Fig. 2a.
Each specimen had a precut notch with 30 mm in
1000
800
600
T /ºC
depth and 3 mm in thickness. The span-depth ratio
equals 4. To obtain the complete load-displacement
(CMOD, CTOD and d) curves, the testing rate was
fixed at 0.025 mm/min.
For the cube compressive test, a universal testing
machine with a maximum capacity of 2000 kN was
employed, and the testing rate was fixed at 0.2 mm/
min until failure. For the prism compressive test, the
same testing machine and testing rate were utilized
(0.2 mm/min monotonously to failure), hoping to
obtain a stable stress-strain curve to calculate the
residual compressive strength and Young’s modulus.
Strain gauges were glued on the specimen surface to
monitor the compressive strain during loading. For the
post-fire concrete, due to the existence of numerous
micro cracks, it is reasonable to use the monotonic
loading method to obtain Young’s modulus, but not
the conventional method of loading-unloading cycles.
The loading-unloading process would close the micro
cracks in concrete, which would increase Young’s
modulus. The geometry of the test specimen is shown
in Fig. 2b.
The splitting test was carried out by means of a
universal testing machine with a maximum capacity of
2000 kN, and the testing rate was fixed at 0.1 mm/min
to maintain a stable loading state. The geometry of the
test specimen is shown in Fig. 2c.
In the test, digital image correlation-DIC technol-
ogy was utilized to monitor the whole loading process.
DIC is an optical technique to visualize surface
deformations by successive post-processing of digital

images [12, 15, 28]. With this technique, analysis of

400
the deformations can be conducted by comparing the
deformed images during loading with the reference
200 image before loading. In the process of identifying the
deformations, a small part of the reference image is
0 defined as the reference subset and the corresponding
0 500 1000 1500
part on the deformed image as the target subset. The
Time / mins
target subset can be searched by gray scale distribu-
Fig. 1 Heating regime for TPB beams tion. Thus, the measurement of the deformations is
4520
Clip gauge
(a)
Strain gauge
100mm
(b)
Fig. 2 a Configuration of TPB beams, b compressive test, and c splitting tests
transformed into digital correlation calculation, and
the displacements at the various points in the reference
subset are obtained by subtracting the new coordinates
from the original ones.
For the purpose of deformation identification, the
specimen surface was treated by creating a random,
sprayed-on speckle pattern with a white-black point
(shown in Fig. 3). In the experiment, a digital camera
with a resolution of 6000 9 4000 pixels was used
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532
100mm
100mm
100mm
(c)
(shown in Fig. 3). Pictures were taken automatically
with a 10-s interval until the specimen failed.
3 Experimental phenomena
For high-strength/high-performance concrete speci-
mens, when the specimens were exposed to temper-
atures below 400 °C, the fracture load generally
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532 4521

Fig. 3 Test set-up for DIC measurement

reached its peak with no visible crack observed. Once
the had been crack initiated, the splitting load dropped
dramatically because of its brittle nature. Figure 4
shows that the crack propagated vertically to the
bottom of the specimen along with the precut notch at
25 °C. At temperatures above 400 °C, the crack path
became more tortuous.
Figure 5 shows the fracture surfaces of C100
exposed to 400 and 800 °C. For high-strength/high-
performance concrete subjected to a temperature of
400 °C, the bond of the aggregate particles with the
cement paste was higher, which caused the aggregate
particlesto crack in numerous sites. At 800 °C, the
fracture surfaces tended to be more tortuous, and fewer
cracks across the aggregate particles were observed.
The aggregate particles were pulled out of the cement
paste, which could be attributed to the degradation of
the bond and the existence of micro cracks at the
interface zone between the coarse aggregates and
mortar paste.
4 Experimental results
4.1 Load-deflection and load-CMOD curves
To determine the residual fracture parameters, the
complete load-deflection (P–d) and load-CMOD (P–
CMOD) curves are crucial. A complete load-displace-
ment (including the deflection and CMOD) curve can

Fig. 4 Crack path of

specimens exposed to
different temperatures
(C100)
4522 Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532

Fig. 5 Crack surface at 400 and 800 °C of C100 (red circle means the cracking grains). (Color figure online)

represent a number of findings, such as the initial
stiffness, ultimate load capacity, displacements at
cracking and failure load, and hardening and softening
properties. Even the geometric shape of the curve can
reflect the toughness or brittleness in some way. As
long as the P-CMOD curve has steep loading and
unloading branches with a well-defined peak, concrete
can be considered a ‘‘quasi-brittle’’ material, while
softer loading and unloading branches with a rounded
peak (something occurring at high temperature) indi-
cate a greater meandering and branching of cracks in
the fracture zone.
Figure 6 shows typical complete load-displacement
curves of C100 exposed to temperatures up to 800 °C.
The figure shows that the ultimate load Pu generally
decreased significantly with Tm, whereas the deflec-
tion and CMOD increased with Tm. The initial slope of
ascending branches decreased with temperature, and
the curve gradually became flatter and more extended.
Figure 6 shows the variation of the initial cracking
load Pini and peak load Pu of C100 with Tm. The Pini is
determined by the graphic method [32]. The average
Pini decreased from 4.26 kN at ambient temperature to
4.06 kN at 200 °C, 2.42 kN at 400 °C, 1.05 kN at

8 100-25 8.0
Pini Average
100-200
7 7.0
100-400 Pu Average
6 100-600 6.0
100-800
5 5.0
P ini, P u /kN
Load/kN

4 4.0

3 3.0

2 2.0

1 1.0

0 0.0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 0 200 400 600 800
CMOD/mm T /°C
(a) (b)
Fig. 6 a Load-CMOD curves at all temperatures of C100 and b initial and ultimate load with Tm
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532
600 °C, and finally to 0.42 kN at 800 °C. Pu slightly
decreased from 7.35 kN at room temperature to 6.55
kN at 200 °C. Then, it continuously decreased to 4.02
kN at 400 °C, with a sudden drop of 3.33 kN, 2.03 kN
at 600 °C, and 1.06 kN at 800 °C, with a final drop of
85 %. Meanwhile, the critical CMOD (CMODc),
corresponding to the ultimate load Pu, increased from
0.049 mm at room temperature to 0.096 mm at
400 °C, 0.211 mm at 600 °C, and 0.261 mm at
800 °C with a final increase of five times the initial
value. It shows that the concrete became less brittle
with Tm.
4.2 Test results from the DIC method
Figure 7 shows the comparison of load-deflection
curves obtained from the direct measurement and DIC
measurement. The two curves coincide well in the
whole loading process, which proved the accuracy of
the DIC measurement. The corresponding crack
propagation at different loading stages is also shown
in Fig. 7.
Figure 8 shows the comparison of load-CMOD
curves obtained from the clip gauge and DIC
measurement for C100 concrete subjected to high
temperatures. The CMOD determined by the DIC fit
well with the CMOD measured by the clip gauge in the
whole loading process, which proved the accuracy of
the DIC measurement.
Load/kN
25% Peak Load
Fig. 7 Comparison of load-deflection curves from LVDT and DIC measurement and the crack propagation during loading process
4523
The crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) was
also monitored by the DIC technique. Figure 9 shows
the computational domain with 40 mm width, four
times that of the maximum coarse aggregate. The
horizontal displacement along the computational line
LR was calculated by the DIC technique. The
experimental load-CTOD curve of the C100-25 con-
crete specimen is shown in Fig. 10.
Figure 11 shows the displacements at the compu-
tational points along line LR at four loading stages P1,
P2, P3, and P4, shown in Fig. 10. From Fig. 11a, it can
be seen that, at loading point P1, the displacement
distribution was basically horizontal, indicating that
the specimen was in an elastic state, and the tiny
fluctuations could be induced by the heterogeneity of
concrete. At loading point P2, the displacements
increased obviously, and a displacement jump
occurred near point O, as shown in Fig. 11b. The
displacement jump was caused by the formation of
micro cracks. At loading point P3, the micro cracks
extended, and the displacement jump became more
obvious, as shown in Fig. 11c. At loading point P4, the
micro cracks extended and widened further, and the
displacement jump became even more prominent, as
shown in Fig. 11d. It should be noted that the
displacement jump was concentrated mainly near
point O and became negligibly small as the compu-
tational point moved away from point O. Thus, the
CTOD was obtained by subtracting the displacement
Peak Load
4.5
4.0 P2
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
P3
1.5
1.0
P1
0.5 LVDT
0.0
DIC 40% Peak Load
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
Displacement/mm
4524 Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532

7 4.5

4.0
6 Measured by clip gauge Measured by clip gauge
3.5 Determined by DIC method
Determined by DIC method
5
3.0
Load/kN

4 2.5

Load/kN
3 2.0

1.5
2
1.0
1
0.5

0 0.0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.81 1.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
CMOD/mm CMOD/mm
(a) (b)

2.5 1.2

Measured by clip gauge 1 Measured by clip gauge

2.0
Determined by DIC method Determined by DIC method
0.8
1.5
Load/kN

Load/kN

0.6
1.0
0.4

0.5
0.2

0.0 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0 1 2 3 4
CMOD/mm CMOD/mm
(c) (d)
Fig. 8 Comparison of load–CMOD curves for C100 specimens 400 °C. c Load–CMOD curves of C100 exposed to 600 °C.
subjected to high temperature. a Load-CMOD curves of C100 d Load–CMOD curves of C100 exposed to 800 °C
exposed to 200 °C, b Load–CMOD curves of C100 exposed to

at the jump point Q from that at point T. For example,

X
the crack opening displacement on line LR was equal
to 320 lm at loading point P4. The observation of the
Computational domain
displacement jump provided another method to deter-
mine the initial cracking load besides the graphic
method [33].
O
L R Y 4.3 Residual compressive and splitting strength

Figure 12 shows the residual compressive strength fp

of the 100 mm 9 100 mm 9 200 mm prism with Tm.
Fig. 9 Calculated domain of the DIC method Both compressive strengths decreased continuously
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532
8.0
P3
7.0
6.0
5.0 P2
Load /kN
4.0
3.0
2.0 P1 P4
1.0
0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
CTOD/mm
Fig. 10 Experimental load-CTOD curve of the C100-25
specimen
up to 800 °C. High temperatures can be divided into
two ranges in terms of the effect on concrete strength
loss, namely 20–400 °C and 400–800 °C. Lower
temperatures (25–200 °C) have a gentle influence on
high-strength/high-performance concrete, which
almost maintained the original strength. In the range
of 400–800 °C, the concrete lost most of its original
strength, especially at temperatures above 600 °C.
Thus, 400–800 °C can also be regarded as the critical
temperature range for the strength loss of plain
concrete [10]. Higher temperatures would cause more
micro cracks, dehydration, and decomposition and
degrade the strength.
In spite of their different strengths, the two
concretes exhibited almost the same trend in terms
of the evolution of their behavior in compression and
tension. For C100, the residual compressive strength
of the concrete prism (fp) decreased from 80.48 MPa
at room temperature to 77.86 MPa at 200 °C, with a
decrease of only 2.62 MPa, or 2.3 %. Afterwards, it
decreased continuously to 58.61 and 22.63 MPa at 400
and 800 °C, with a net drop of 27 and 72 %. Similarly,
for C80, the residual compressive strength (fp)
decreased from 55.28 MPa at room temperature to
54.86 MPa at 200 °C, with a decrease of only
0.42 MPa. Afterwards, it decreased continuously to
41.49 and 16.05 MPa at 400 and 800 °C, with a net
drop of 25 and 71 %. The evolution of the compressive
strength of the concrete prism fits with the previous
research dealing with the post-fire high-strength/
high-performance concrete [3, 4, 6, 7, 25, 29, 34].
4525
Compared with the normal-strength concrete, temper-
atures of 200 and 400 °C induced more strength loss in
the high-strength/high-performance concrete partly
because of the melting of the PP fiber beyond 170 °C
[24]. The difference narrowed when the temperature
increased to 600 and 800 °C; both the normal- and
high-strength concretes suffered a significant strength
loss [3, 24].
For cube specimens with the strength of C100, the
residual compressive strength (fc) decreased from
109.80 MPa at room temperature to 94.60 MPa at
200 °C, with a decrease of 15.20 MPa, or 14 %.
Afterwards, it decreased continuously to 87.76 and
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
42.18 MPa at 400 and 800 °C, with a net drop of 20
and 62 %. Similarly, for C80, the residual compres-
sive strength (fc) decreased from 88.26 MPa at room
temperature to 74.66 and 34.00 MPa at 400 and
800 °C, with a net drop of 16 and 62 %. Compared
with the previous knowledge [9, 10, 22], the strength at
400 °C in this investigation was relatively low, which
might have been due to a longer duration of exposure
to 400 °C temperature. Additionally, the strength loss
of the prism specimen is more significant than that of
the cube specimens, especially for temperatures higher
than 400 °C [24].
The loss in tensile splitting strength is considerably
sharp (shown in Fig. 13), which is clearly different
from the more gradual loss of compressive strength.
This is owing to the tensile strength being more
sensitive to cracks on either the macro- or micro-scale,
caused by the high temperatures of the concrete [10].
The high-strength/high-performance concrete suf-
fered more severe splitting-strength loss than nor-
mal-strength concrete [10].
4.4 Residual Young’s modulus
Figure 14 shows that the residual Young’s modulus E,
obtained from the prism compressive test, decreased
continuously with Tm for both concrete strengths.
Each point in Fig. 8 is the average value of at least
three concrete prisms. The micro cracks, dehydration,
and decomposition of the cement matrix and aggregate
induced by high temperatures reduced the concrete
stiffness. Young’s modulus E of C100 at all temper-
atures was higher than that of C80 because of the
increased strength. For C100, E decreased from 55.20
GPa at room temperature to 49.66 GPa at 200 °C,
24.25 GPa at 400 °C, and finally 3.78 GPa at 800 °C,
4526 Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532

0.02 0.02

0.01 0.01

u /mm
u /mm
T

0 0

-0.01 -0.01

Q
L R L R
-0.02 -0.02
-20 -10 0 10 20 -20 -10 0 10 20
Y/mm Y/mm
(a) (b)

0.02 0.30

T T
0.01 0.20
u /mm

0 0.10

u /mm
-0.01 0.00

Q
-0.02 -0.10

L R L Q R
-0.03 -0.20
-20 -10 0 10 20 20 -10 0 10 20
Y/mm Y/mm
(c) (d)
Fig. 11 Displacements at the computational points along line of the peak load in the pre-peak region. c At P3 corresponding to
LR at four loading stages. a At P1 corresponding to 28 % of the the peak load. d At P4 corresponding to 18 % of the peak load in
peak load in the pre-peak region. b At P2 corresponding to 82 % the post-peak region

with a significant loss of 51.42 GPa, or 93 % of the to cracks at either the macro- or micro-scale caused by
initial value. For C80, E decreased from 49.35 GPa at high temperatures [17].
room temperature to 41.70 GPa at 200 °C, 19.00 GPa Young’s modulus can also be determined from the
at 400 °C, and finally 2.78 GPa at 800 °C, with a initial slope load-deflection P–d curve for a three-
significant loss of 46.57 GPa, or 94 % of the initial point bending beam [30] and was calculated by the
value. The variation of the compressive Young’s following equation:
modulus is consistent with the previous study [4].
Similar to the splitting tensile strength, the loss in 6Sa0 24a0
Young’s modulus with temperature is considerably E¼ V ð a0 Þ ¼ V ð a0 Þ ð1Þ
Ci bh2 Ci bh
more serious than the compressive strength. The
reason is that the Young’s modulus is more sensitive For Sh ¼ 4,
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532 4527

100 one increased from 1.28 at room temperature to 3.02 at

90 C100 Average
800 °C, while for C80, the ratio increased from 1.28 at
80 room temperature to 2.04 at 800 °C. The thermal
C80 Average
damage induced by the high temperature greatly
70
reduced the stiffness of concrete because of the full
60
f p /MPa

development of micro cracks. When the specimen is

50 exposed to tensile stress, the micro cracks become
40 wider. In contrast, when subjected to the compressive
30 stress, the micro cracks would be close and the fine and
20 coarse aggregates between the cracks would help to
10
transfer the compressive stress and recover the com-
pressive modulus. Hence, the tensile Young’s modu-
0
0 200 400 600 800 lus suffers more seriously from thermal damage than
T /°C the compressive Young’s modulus.
For high-strength concrete and for concrete (normal
Fig. 12 Compressive strength of C100 and C80 with Tm
and high strength) [31] subjected to high temperature,
it is more reasonable to use the load-CMOD curve to
7 calculate Young’s modulus instead of the compressive
C100 Average
test because of the different stress state between the
6 C80 Average TPB test and compressive test.
5
Splitting Stress/MPa

4 4.5 Fracture energy

3 The fracture energy, GF, defined as the total energy

dissipated over a unit area of the cracked ligament, is
2
obtained on the basis of the work done by the force and
1 the self-weight. The fracture energy GF is calculated
based on the following equation [27]:
0
0 200 400 600 800
Z d0 .
T /°C GF ¼ PðdÞdd þ mgd0 Alig ð3Þ
0

Fig. 13 Splitting strength of C100 and C80 with Tm
V ða0 Þ ¼ 0:76  2:28a0 þ 3:87a20  2:04a30
0:66
þ ð2Þ
ð 1  a0 Þ 2
where S is the span of specimen, and h and b are the
depth and width of the beam, respectively. a0 is the
depth of the notch, a0 = (a0 ? h0)/(h ? h0), and h0 is
the thickness of the clip gauge holder. In this
experiment, the slope was obtained by the linear
regression of the P-CMOD curve when the load
achieved 20 % of the maximum load. The calculated
values are shown in Fig. 14.
The testing values of Young’s modulus at all
temperatures are higher than the calculated values. For
C100, the ratio of the testing value to the calculated
where GF is the fracture energy (J/m2), m = m1 ? m2
(kg), m1 = Ms/l (weight of the beam between the
support, calculated as the beam weight multiplied by s/
l), M is the mass of the specimen, m2 is the weight of
the part of the loading arrangement that is not attached
to the machine but follows the beam until failure,
s = span, L = length of the specimen, g = 9.81 m/s2,
d0 is the mid-span deflection of the specimens at
failure (m), Alig is the area of the ligament (m2), d is the
mid-span deflection (m), and P is the load (N).
Figure 15 shows the residual fracture energy GF of
the concrete specimens. Each point in Fig. 15 is the
average value of at least four beams. As an energy
index, the fracture energy decreased more gently than
the strength value (compressive and splitting strength)
with temperature because of the increase of deflection
of post-fire TPB beams. For C100, GF decreased from
4528 Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532

6.0 6.0
C100 Testing C80 Testing

5.0 C100 Calculated 5.0 C80 Calculated

4.0 4.0

E /× 10 MPa
E /× 10 MPa

4
4

3.0 3.0

2.0 2.0

1.0 1.0

0.0 0.0
0 200 400 600 800 0 200 400 600 800
T /°C T /°C

Fig. 14 Young’s modulus obtained from the compressive test and calculated from the load-CMOD curve

400 400

350 350

300 300
-1
-1

250 250
G F /N·M
G F /N·M

200 200

150 150

100 100
Fracture energy of C100 Fracture energy of C80
50 50

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 0 200 400 600 800
T /°C T /°C

Fig. 15 Fracture energy of C100 and C80 with Tm

362.2 to 306.67 J/m2 at 200 °C, 276.18 J/m2 at
600 °C, and 232.41 J/m2 at 800 °C with only a 36 %
decrease (compared to the 61 and 68 % decrease of
compressive and splitting strength at 800 °C). For
C80, GF decreased from 344.68 to 290.38 J/m2 at
200 °C, 263.16 J/m2 at 600 °C, and 225.30 J/m2 at
800 °C with a 35 % decrease. In high-strength/high-
performance concrete, the fracture energy generally
tends to remain constant with the temperature or to
increase (even by 20–30 %, see [4, 34] up to
400–450 °C. The fracture energy of C100 and C80
are very close at all temperatures. Although high
strength helped to increase GF, the crack path of C80
was more tortuous than that of C100, which induced
higher energy dissipation. This phenomenon could
also explain the gentle decrease of GF with
temperature.
The normal-strength concrete holds an increase-
decrease tendency of GF with temperature with an
inflection point at approximately 400 °C [2, 21, 35].
The more tortuous cracking path and less severe
strength loss resulted in a higher GF. As mentioned in
Sect. 3, for high-strength/high-performance concrete,
the bond of the grains with the cement paste was still
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532 4529

400 400

350 350

300 300

250

-1
250
-1

G F /N·M
G F /N·M

0.2283
200 200 G F = 120.43f p
2
R = 0.6777
150 150
0.3344
G F = 68.595f c
100 2 100
R = 0.724
50 50

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
fc /MPa fp /MPa

Fig. 16 Relationship between fracture energy and compressive strength (left cube compressive strength; right prism compressive
strength)

higher at 400 °C, which caused the grains to crack in thickness. f (a) is the function of the deformability of
numerous sites, inducing a much flatter crack surface the TPB specimen; similarly, f(a0) for Kini and f(ac) for
for high-strength concrete. Kun, and they are determined as follows [30]:
Figure 16 shows the relationship between fracture  
energy and compressive strength, including concrete 1:99  a0 ð1  a0 Þ 2:15  3:93a0 þ 2:7a20
f ða0 Þ ¼ ;
cube and prism compressive strength. From the ð1 þ 2a0 Þð1  a0 Þ3=2
experimental point, it is more convenient to conduct a0
a0 ¼ ð5Þ
the compressive test than the TPB test. Hence, it is h
necessary to establish the relationship between these  
1:99  ac ð1  ac Þ 2:15  3:93ac þ 2:7a2c
parameters. The results show that the residual fracture f ðac Þ ¼ ;
energy decreased with the fall of the concrete strength ð1 þ 2ac Þð1  ac Þ3=2
in a power index because of the thermal damage ac
ac ¼ ð6Þ
induced by the temperature. h
a0 is the initial notch depth of the test specimens; ac
4.6 Fracture toughness is the critical notch depth of the test specimens
according to the literature [30]:
Toughness commonly characterizes the capacity of a  1=2
material to resist deformation and fracture, making 2 bECMODc
ac ¼ ðh þ h0 Þ arctan  0:1135
toughness a synthetic property. A lower toughness is p 32:6Pu
commonly understood to be the tendency for a  h0 ð7Þ
material to fracture abruptly before significant irre-
versible deformation occurs. The initial fracture where E is the Young’s modulus obtained from the
toughness Kini and unstable fracture toughness Kun slope of the P-CMOD curve; h0 is the thickness of the
are calculated with the following equation [30]: clip gauge holder; CMODc is the critical crack mouth
opening displacement, and Pu is the peak load.
3PS pffiffiffi Figure 17 shows the evolution of fracture tough-
K¼ af ðaÞ ð4Þ
2bd2 ness with the temperature of C100. Both fracture
where P is the vertical load, Pini for Kini and Pu for Kun; toughnesses decreased linearly with Tm, fitting with
d is the specimen depth, and b is the specimen the previous findings [14, 37]. Higher temperatures
4530
2.5
C100 Unstable fracture toughness
C80 Unstable fracture toughness
2.0
C100 Initial fracture toughness
C80 Initial fracture toughness
1/2
K ini , K un /MPa·m
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0 200 400 600 800
T /°C
Fig. 17 Fracture toughness of C80 and C100 with Tm
induced more thermal damage and micro-cracks in the
concrete; hence, it was much easier for the specimens
to fracture. The initial fracture toughness continuously
decreased from 0.83 MPa m1/2 at room temperature to
0.79 MPa m1/2 at 200 °C, 0.47 MPa m1/2 at 400 °C,
and finally 0.10 MPa m1/2 at 600 °C, with a significant
loss of 0.69 MPa m1/2 or 88 %. The unstable fracture
toughness decreased from 2.18 MPa m1/2 at room
temperature to 1.25 MPa m1/2 at 400 °C, and
0.39 MPa m1/2 at 800 °C, with a significant loss of
1.79 MPa m1/2 or 82 %.
The evolution of fracture toughness with a temper-
ature of C80 is similar to that with C100. The initial
fracture toughness continuously decreased from
0.74 MPa m1/2 at room temperature to 0.45 MPa m1/
2
at 400 °C, and 0.06 MPa m1/2 at 800 °C, with a
significant loss of 0.68 MPa m1/2 or 92 %. The unsta-
ble fracture toughness decreased from 1.71 MPa m1/2
at room temperature to 0.37 MPa m1/2 at 800 °C, with
a significant loss of 1.34 MPa m1/2 or 78 %.
Figure 17 shows that the initial and unstable frac-
ture toughness increased with concrete strength.
However, with increasing temperatures, the fracture
toughness (Kun and Kini) of C100 and C80 got closer
because of the fierce thermal damage.
4.7 Concrete brittleness
Brittleness is commonly understood to be the tendency
for a material or structure to fracture abruptly before
significant irreversible deformation occurs. Different
brittleness or toughness parameters are used to assess
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532
the concrete brittleness, including energy-based,
deformation-based, and complex parameters. Within
an elastic-brittle approach, Hillerborg et al. [16]
proposed the characteristic length lch as a brittleness
parameter:
GF E
lch ¼ ð8Þ
ft2
where the material properties E, GF, and ft are the
functions of temperature. E is Young’s modulus; ft is
the splitting tensile strength. Because lch includes a
combination of energy, stiffness, and strength param-
eters, it is regarded as a synthetic brittleness param-
eter. The larger the value of lch is, the less brittle (or
tougher) the concrete.
Figure 18 shows that lch decreased linearly with Tm.
For C80, the characteristic length lch continuously
decreased from 448 mm at room temperature to
370 mm at 400 °C, and 91 mm at 800 °C, with a
significant loss of 357 mm or 80 %. While for C100,
the characteristic length lch decreased from 860 mm at
room temperature to 411 mm at 400 °C, and 136 mm
at 800 °C, with a significant loss of 724 mm or 84 %.
The characteristic length of C80 was higher than C100
at all temperatures, which meant that the concrete
brittleness increased with concrete strength.
5 Discussion
The mainly new contribution of this article is to utilize
the DIC method to monitor the whole fracture process
1,000
C80 Characteristic length
800 C100 Characteristic length
600
l ch /mm
400
200
0
0 200 400 600 800
T /°C
Fig. 18 Characteristic length of C100 and C80 with Tm
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532
of post-fire high-strength concrete. The accuracy of
this method was first proved using the comparison of
load-deflection curves obtained by the displacement
gauges and DIC measurement. Then, by giving the
information on crack-tip opening displacement, digital
image correlation provides, therefore, another way to
determine the first-cracking load. The fracture process
including the fracture zone and full fracture length
could be further analyzed.
On the other hand, the tensile/flexural Young’s
modulus was found to be different from the compres-
sive Young’s modulus for post-fire high-strength
concrete because of the existence of temperature-
induced micro cracks and the different stress states.
Adopting the tensile Young’s modulus in the fracture
analysis is suggested.
6 Conclusions
The effect of temperature on the residual fracture
properties of high-strength/high-performance con-
crete of C100 and C80, including the strength
parameters (cube and prism compressive strength,
splitting strength), stiffness parameter (compressive
Young’s modulus), fracture parameters including the
fracture energy, initial fracture toughness, unsta-
ble fracture toughness, and the characteristic length,
were investigated by conducting the three-point
bending test. The following conclusions could be
drawn:
(1) The load-deflection and the load-CMOD curves
obtained by means of direct measurements and
digital image correlation are in good agreement,
this being a demonstration of the accuracy of the
latter technology. By giving information on
crack-tip opening displacement, digital image
correlation provides, therefore, another way to
determine the first-cracking load.
(2) The residual cube and prism compressive
strength of C100 and C80 decreased with
increasing temperature. The indirect tensile
strength by splitting was definitely more
affected by the temperature than the compres-
sive strength.
(3) The residual Young’s modulus of C100 and C80
decreased monotonically with temperature. The
modulus obtained from compressive tests were
4531
higher than the calculated values because of the
heat-induced micro- and macro-cracks, as well
as the different stress states in uniaxial com-
pression and three-point bending. In the TPB
test, using the calculated Young’s modulus
from the load–CMOD curve instead of that from
the compressive test is suggested.
(4) The fracture energy of C100 and C80 decreased
slightly with high temperature. The initial
fracture toughness and unstable fracture tough-
ness decreased monotonically with high tem-
perature, while increasing with the concrete
strength.
(5) The characteristic length of both concretes
decreased linearly with the temperature, which
meant a decrease of brittleness with tempera-
ture. The characteristic length of C80 was larger
than the value of C100 at all temperatures,
which meant that the concrete brittleness
increased with the compressive strength.
Acknowledgments The authors are grateful for the financial
support received from the Natural Science Fund of China
(project nos. 51478362 and 51378397).
References
1. Aitcin PC (2011) High performance concrete. CRC Press,
Boca Raton
2. Baker G (1996) The effect of exposure to elevated tem-
peratures on the fracture energy of plain concrete. RILEM
Mater Struct 29(6):383–388
3. Bamonte P, Gambarova PG (2009) Thermal and mechanical
properties at high temperature of a very high-strength dur-
able concrete. J Mater Civ Eng 22:545–555
4. Bamonte P, Gambarova PG (2012) A study on the
mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete at high
temperature and after cooling. Mater Struct 45(9):1375–
1387
5. Bazant ZP, Prat PC (1988) Effect of temperatures and
humidity on fracture energy of concrete. ACI Mater J
85(4):262–271
6. Behnood A, Ghandehari M (2009) Comparison of com-
pressive and splitting tensile strength of high-strength/high-
performance concrete with and without polypropylene
fibers heated to high temperatures. Fire Saf J 44(8):1015–
1022
7. Biolzi L, Cattaneo S, Rosati G (2008) Evaluating residual
properties of thermally damaged concrete. Cement Concr
Compos 30(10):907–916
8. Castillo C, Durrani AJ (1990) Effect of transient high
temperature on high strength concrete. ACI Mater J
86(1):47–53
4532
9. Chan SYN, Peng GF, Anson M (1999) Residual strength
and pore structure of high-strength/high-performance con-
crete and normal strength concrete after exposure to high
temperatures. Cement Concr Compos 21(1):23–27
10. Chan SYN, Peng GF, Anson M (1999) Fire behavior of
high-performance concrete made with silica fume at various
moisture contents. ACI Mater J 96(3):405–409
11. Chan YN, Luo X, Sun W (2000) Compressive strength and
pore structure of high-performance concrete after exposure
to high temperature up to 800 °C. Cem Concr Res
30(2):247–251
12. Chu TC, Ranson WF, Sutton MA (1985) Applications of
digital image correlation techniques to experimental
mechanics. Exp Mech 25(3):232–244
13. Farny JA, Panarese WC (1994) High strength concrete.
Portland Cement Association, Illinois
14. Fattah HA, Hamoush SA (1997) Variation of the fracture
toughness of concrete with temperature. Constr Build Mater
11(2):105–108
15. Helm JD (2008) Digital image correlation for specimens
with multiple growing cracks. Exp Mech 48(6):753–762
16. Hillerborg A, Modeer M, Peterson PE (1976) Analysis of
crack formation and crack growth in concrete by means of
fracture mechanics and finite elements. Cem Concr Res
6(6):773–782
17. Hsu TTC, Slate FO, Sturman GM, Winter G (1963)
Microcracking of plain concrete and the shape of the stress–
strain curve. ACI Material Journal 60(2):209–224
18. Jahren PA (1989) Fire resistance of high strength/dense
concrete with particular reference to the use of condensed
silica fume—a review, fly ash, silica fume, slag, and natural
pozzolans in concrete. In: Proceedings of the third interna-
tional conference, ACI SP-114, Detroit, pp 1013–1049
19. Li M, Qian CX, Sun W (2004) Mechanical properties of
high-strength/high-performance concrete after fire. Cem
Concr Res 34(6):1001–1005
20. Lin WM, Lin TD, Powers LJ (1996) Couches, Microstruc-
tures of fire damaged concrete. ACI Mater J 92(3):199–205
21. Nielsen CV, Bicanic N (2003) Residual fracture energy of
high-performance and normal concrete subject to high
temperatures. RILEM Mater Struct 36(8):515–521
22. Peng GF, Yang WW, Zhao J, Liu YF, Bian SH, Zhao LH
(2006) Explosive spalling and residual mechanical proper-
ties of fiber-toughened high-performance concrete sub-
jected to high temperatures. Cem Concr Res 36(4):723–727
23. Phan LT (1996) Fire performance of high-strength/high-
performance concrete: a report of the state-of-the art. US
Department of Commerce, Technology Administration,
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Office of
Applied Economics, Building and Fire Research Laboratory
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:4517–4532
24. Phan LT, Carino NJ (1998) Review of mechanical proper-
ties of HSC/HPC at elevated temperature. J Mater Civ Eng
10(1):58–65
25. Poon CS, Azhar S, Anson M (2001) Strength and durability
recovery of fire-damaged concrete after post-fire-curing.
Cem Concr Res 31(9):1307–1318
26. Prokopski G (1995) Fracture toughness of concretes at high
temperature. J Mater Sci 30(6):1609–1612
27. RILEM (1994) FMC1 Determination of the fracture energy
of mortar and concrete by means of three-point bend tests on
notched beams, RILEM Technical Recommendations for
the Testing and Use of Construction Materials, E and FN
SPON, London, pp 99–101
28. Sutton MA, Turner JL, Bruck HA, Chae TA (1991) Full-
field representation of discretely sampled surface defor-
mation for displacement and strain analysis. Exp Mech
31(2):168–177
29. Xiao J, Falkner H (2006) On residual strength of high-per-
formance concrete with and without polypropylene fibers at
elevated temperatures. Fire Saf J 41(2):115–121
30. Xu S, Reinhardt HW (1999) Determination of double-K
criterion for crack propagation in quasi-brittle fracture, Part
II: analytical evaluating and practical measuring methods
for three-point bending notched beams. Int J Fract
98(2):151–177
31. Yu K, Yu J, Lu Z (2014) Determination of residual fracture
parameters of post-fire normal strength concrete Up to 600
°C using an energy approach. Constr Build Mater
73:610–617
32. Yu J, Yu K, Lu Z (2012) Residual fracture properties of
concrete subjected to elevated temperatures. Mater Struct
45(8):1155–1165
33. Yu K, Lu Z (2014) Determining residual double-K fracture
toughness of post-fire concrete using analytical and weight
function method. Mater Struct 47(5):839–852
34. Watanabe K, Bangi MR, Horiguchi T (2013) The effect of
testing conditions (hot and residual) on fracture toughness
of fiber reinforced high-strength/high-performance concrete
subjected to high temperatures. Cem Concr Res 51:6–13
35. Zhang B, Bicanic N, Pearce CJ, Balabanic G (2000)
Residual fracture properties of normal and high-strength/
high-performance concrete subject to elevated tempera-
tures. Mag Concr Res 52(2):123–136
36. Zhang B, Bicanic N (2006) Fracture energy of high-per-
formance concrete at high temperatures up to 450 °C: the
effects of temperatures and testing conditions (hot and
cold). Mag Concr Res 58(5):277–288
37. Zhang B, Bicanic N (2002) Residual fracture toughness of
normal-and high-strength gravel concrete after heating to
600 °C. Mater J 99(3):217–226