Behavior in Compression II

Lateral deformation under uniaxial compression

Initially the lateral deformations are much smaller than the axial deformations. Recall that the Poissons ratio of concrete is about .2
This is true for stresses upto about 30% of peak stress. At a stress of about 70% of peak stress, lateral deformations start increasing significantly. From 70% peak load to peak load, Poissons ratio increases from .2 to . If the same definition of Poissons ratio is used in the post peak branch, the Poissons ratio may even be upto 4-5!

Lateral deformation under uniaxial compression

An explanation for this behavior can be found in the crack growth mechanism.
Since the initial lateral deformation is smaller than the axial deformation, the volume will decrease at low stress levels. At higher stress levels, because of the fast increasing lateral deformations, the volume starts increasing. This commences at about 70% of peak stress. Large increases in lateral strains may occur beyond this level due to unstable crack growth.

Lateral deformation under uniaxial compression

vol
20 10

.7
1

ck

Lateral deformation under uniaxial compression

At this level crack growth becomes unstable. Thus even if the loading is halted and kept constant, spontaneous failure would occur after some time.
All curves show a descending branch after peak stress has been reached. However the characteristics of the curves after peak stress has been reached is highly dependent on the method of testing

In order to obtain a stable unloading branch, typically a feedback mechanism must be present in the testing apparatus.

Measuring the unloading response

This is to control the loading rate in response to the decreasing resistance of the cylinder in order to ensure a constant strain rate In such cases a long stable descending branch can be obtained.
In the absence of special devices, unloading past the point of peak stress may be rapid. This is particularly true for high strength concrete which is more brittle than normal strength concrete

Post peak behavior

Interest in describing the post peak behavior has increased considerably because of the need to model the post damage initiation response. This is because locally the concrete may damage and even fail, but continue to carry loads (even increasing loads) much beyond the load level at which peak response is first achieved anywhere in the model due to the existence of alternative load paths.
If softening behavior can be modeled then numerical analysis can proceed beyond the occurrence of the onset of softening anywhere in the model.

Post peak behavior

To model post peak behavior it is essential to calibrate the numerical model with uniaxial compression stress strain response that includes the softening part of the curve.
If cylinders of prisms of constant diameter and varying heights are subjected to uniaxial compressive loading, the behavior in the loading portion of the stress-strain curve is identical. However the stress strain curves in the softening portion are quite different.

Post peak behavior: stress vs strain

Size dependent response

It is seen that beyond the peak stress, the slope of the descending portion of the stress strain curve decreases with decreasing specimen height. Does this mean that the material response is truly nonunique? If so this would point to the existence of a size effect in concrete for uniaxial compressive loading.
The size effect is however not due to any inherent nonuniqueness in the softening response. This can be verified by plotting stress vs. axial displacement rather than stress vs. axial strain.

Size dependent response

If stress vs. axial displacement is plotted, the stressdisplacement curves for the different specimen heights more or less coincide with each other. The axial displacement in that case is computed as:

= ( - peak ) h
where h is the height of the specimen This is because the post-peak deformation is localized in a small zone, much smaller than the length of the specimen i.e the deformation is highly non-homogeneous over the specimen height h

Post peak behavior: stress vs displacement

Localized deformations
If the strains were calculated using a gauge with gauge length equal to the size of the localized zone similar results would have been obtained i.e. the strain curves in that case would have been identical or near-identical for all specimens.
This result clearly indicates that fracture in concrete in uniaxial compression is a highly localized phenomenon. The constitutive law that describes the behavior in the localized regime should therefore be formulated in terms of stress vs. displacement rather than stress vs. strain. Alternatively it should contain an internal length scale.

Shear band formation

Localization of deformation typically occurs between shear fracture planes, the region between the planes being known as a shear band. The existence of these internal fracture planes as well as the shear bands have been confirmed by experiments. Typically these experiments involve impregnation of colored epoxy based dies into the specimen.
The development of the shear planes have a direct effect on the lateral deformation.

Effect on lateral defomation

Specimens with larger h values show greater variability in the lateral strains.

This is because of the formation of discrete shear bands. It is seen that specimens with larger h values show fewer shear bands than specimens with smaller heights. If the shear bands are few, the probability that stain gauges would be located spanning the shear bands is relatively less. On the other hand, for specimens with smaller values of h, it is highly likely that the strain gauges would be located spanning the shear bands.
This explains the large variability in lateral strain readings for specimens of greater height.

Effect on lateral defomation

Mechanics of shear banding

Shear banding is a complex phenomenon and still the subject of active research. The mechanics is complicated.
Basically shear bands can be thought of as regions where the deformation is localized Once a shear band forms, deformations accumulate in the shear band there are large plastic strains over a narrow region with very high strain gradients. Outside the shear band there is very little plastic deformation in fact shear banding is often accompanied by unloading outside the shear band.

Problems obtaining numerical solutions

The width of the shear band depends on the internal length scale of the material.

This makes attempts to capture numerically the width of the shear band of the strain distributions within the shear band an extremely difficult task. Ordinary finite element analysis, based on constitutive models with no internal length scale, cannot be use to uniquely capture the structure and width of the bands.
Finite element solutions using such constitutive modes turn out to be mesh dependent on mesh size as well as the orientation of the elements of the mesh.

Problems obtaining numerical solutions

In such cases, the peak strain as well as the width of the shear band vary continuously with mesh size in fact it is impossible to obtain convergent solutions with mesh refinement. Why is this so? The reason can be found by examining the partial differential equations of motion. In any mechanics problem, we are essentially solving the hyperbolic wave equation:
2 u 2 2 u = c t2

Loss of hyperbolicity
In quasi-static problems the assumption is that the rate of loading is very small compared to the wave speed while in dynamic problems, the rate of loading is significant as compared to the wave speed. When localization occurs, in finite element solutions without an internal length scale, the deformation gets trapped inside shear bands. This results in the shear bands becoming narrower and narrower with mesh size and the strains inside the shear band increasing without limit (i.e. approaching infinite as the mesh becomes smaller and smaller).

Loss of hyperbolicity
The partial differential equation in the shear band therefore transitions from the hyperbolic wave equation to the elliptic Laplaces equation:
2 u=0

However, the finite element solution involves solving the weak form of the hyperbolic wave equation! Continuing to solve the hyperbolic equation when it is no longer valid i.e. no longer describes the physics of the problem is the reason why the numerical solutions in such cases are meaningless and an artifact of the mesh size.

Regularization procedures
How to resolve the problem and obtain physically meaningful numerical solutions, that converge with mesh refinement and resemble experimental results? Several researchers have suggested different regularization procedures. They include:

(a) strain gradient based plasticity models (stresses are a function not just of strains but of strain gradients as well) (b) Cosserat continuum based solutions (stresses are based on non-local strains) (c) viscoplastic regularization (modeling the material as viscoplastic rather than plastic)

Regularization procedures
All these approaches have a common theme they introduce an internal length scale into the constitutive equations. Because of the presence of the internal length scale it becomes possible to related the shear band width to an internal state variable. This internal state variable can then be associated /calibrated using the finite shear band widths that are observed in experiments on rock and concrete.

Unique band width

Since the band width is now set by the internal length scale, it cannot become zero with mesh refinement. Nor can the plastic strains in the band, while still being high, become infinitely large. Since the strains in the band cannot become inifinitely large this obviously means that the deformation in the band cannot be wholly trapped i.e. it must propagate to the surrounding material as well. This implies that the wave speeds cannot become zero the differential equation retains hyperbolicity and the numerical solutions are meaningful.

Effect of end restraints

In uniaxial compression experiments, the propensity for shear bands to form, strong depend on the end restraints used. When the specimen is loaded between rigid plattens, the lateral deformation of the concrete is restricted at the ends of the specimen. The specimen develops a bulged shape because the specimen ends are forced to have the same shape as the rigid plattens. The shear stresses that develop between the specimen and the platten leads to a triaxial state of stress at the specimen ends.

Zone of confinement
Similar to the situation described for the isolated aggregate, this results in a conical confined zone at the top of the specimen. The zone of confinement is bounded by shear bands, typically at an angle of about 45 degrees to the specimen.

The exact angle of inclination of the shear band can vary and depends on the eigen directions of something known as the acoustic tensor.
A completely different situation when the platten is not rigid.

Soft and compliant plattens

If the platten is made of a material with low stiffness and high Poissons ratio, e.g. rubber, the plattens will undergo high lateral deformations. This results in outward directed shear forces at the interface.

Because the shear forces are now directed outward, tensile stresses develop in the zone just beneath the platten.
This may result in the development of splitting cracks at the specimen ends.

Effect of Platten
Rigid platten

Compliant platten

Soft and compliant plattens

In such situations, shear bands do not usually occur. Thus the nature of the platten strongly influences the post peak response of the specimen. If loading plattens are used that have the same elastic properties as concrete, end effects such as those described above would be significantly reduced. Alternatively if the specimens have high h values, the end effects do not influence the deformation field along any significant portion of the height.

Microstructure in light weight aggregates

In that case the cracks tend to run through the aggregate particles which are now loaded as in a splitting tension test.
The lateral extension of the aggregates also force splitting cracks to develop in the mortar matrix parallel to the loading direction. In the composite most of the load is carried by the matrix material which has higher stiffness now.

Normal weight vs light weight

Concretes with light weight aggregates have an initial tangent modulus that is significantly smaller than the tangent modulus for normal weight concrete.
Also, the peak strength of normal weight concrete is in general higher than that of light weight concrete. Recall that light weight aggregates e.g. slag and sintered fly ash are primarily used for insulating purposes or masonry units Normal weight aggregates include natural material such as sand, gravel and crushed rock such as granite, basalt and sand stone. Artificial material such as broken brick and air cooled slag are also used.

Normal Weight vs Light Weight

( psi ) 12
Normal wt

( psi )
Light wt

4
.001 .002 .003 .004

.001 .002 .003 .004

Normal weight vs Light Weight

The compressive strength of normal weight concrete is reached at a strain of between .002 and .003. For light weight concrete this is reached at between .0035 and .004

Early strength vs normal strength

Information about compressive strength is usually obtained 28 days after casting.
However cement continues to hydrate after this age at a decreasing rate. High early strength cements produce more rapid gain in strength at early ages than normal strength concrete, however the rate of gain in strength in later ages is less. For early strength concretes, often the strength is specified at 7 days rather than 28 days.

Early strength vs normal strength concrete

c c28
1.2

Normal strength
1.0

0.8

Early strength

0.6

0.4

0.2

time
7 days 28 days 5 years