Fatigue tests were conducted on tapered plain concrete prism specimens under tri axial constant-amplitude tension-compression cyclic loading. The low stress of the cyclic loading was taken as 0.2f c and the upper stress ranged from 0. 20f t to 0.65f t. Three constant lateral pressures were 0.1f c, 0.2f c and 0.3f c respec tively. Based on the results, the th ree-stage evolution rule of the fatigue stiffness, maximum(minimum) longitudina l strain and damage were analyzed, and a unified S-N curve to calculate fati gue strength factors was worked out. The results show that the fatigue strength and fa tigue life under triaxial constant-amplitude tension-compression cyclic loadin g are smaller than those under uniaxial fatigue condition. Moreover, the secondary strain creep rate is related to the fatigue life, a formula for describing thei r relation was derived. The investigation of this paper can provide information for the fatigue design of concrete structures.
The effects of different lateral confinement stress on the fatigue behavior and cumulative damage of plain concrete were investigated experimentally. Eighty 100mm×100mm×100mm specimens of ordinary strength concrete were tested with constant-or variable-amplitude cyclic compression and lateral confinement pressure in two orthogonal directions. A fatigue equation was gained by modifying the classical Aas-Jakobsen S-N equation and used for taking into account the effect of the confined stress on fatigue strength of plain concrete. The present study indicates that the fatigue failure is greatly influenced by the sequence of applied variable-amplitude fatigue loading, and Miner’s rule is inapplicable to predict the residual fatigue life, especially in the sequence of low to high. The present research also shows that the exponent d of the Corten-Dolan’s damage formula is a constant depending on the materials and the levels of load spectrum, and d can be determined through the two-stage fatigue tests. The residual fatigue lives predicted by Corten-Dolan’s damage formula are found to be in good agreement with the results of the experiments.
