Characterization of the uniaxial tensile response of textile reinforced concrete using digital image correlation

SAMANTHULA, R.; ZERBINO, R.; GETTU, R.

Vancouver

Conferencia; 77th RILEM Annual Week and the 1st Interdisciplinary Symposium on Smart & Sustainable Infrastructures (ISSSI 2023); 2023

University of British Columbia

Textile reinforced cementitious composites (TRC) can exhibit strain-hardening behaviour characterized by multiple cracking under tension, which could be used advantageously in structural design. The characteristics of cracking need to be understood in order to limit the strain and crack widths under service and failure loads. In uniaxial tensile tests, conventional displacement transducers show the average behaviour over the span covering most of the specimen, and are unable to provide information about cracking including the sequence of occurrence, spacing, widths and other details. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a non-contact optical tool used for measuring full-field strains and crack characteristics under different loading conditions. The objective of this work is to illustrate the DIC technique for measuring the strains and characteristics of cracks in TRC composites under uniaxial tensile loading. The data from DIC was processed to identify the appearance and assess the evolution of the cracks in panel specimens. In order to understand their propagation, the strains across the width were considered. The DIC results clearly show that parallel cracks appear with almost uniform spacing over the middle of the specimen while asymmetric cracking occurs at the ends, reflecting the rotation induced in the specimen to facilitate redistribution of stresses as the specimen deforms.