This document discusses a study that investigated the fracture behavior of pervious concrete specimens with varying pore structures and fiber contents. The researchers tested notched beams in three-point bending to characterize fracture toughness and critical crack tip opening displacement. They used stereological and morphological methods to analyze the pore structures of the concrete mixtures from images. The results showed that fracture toughness depended primarily on porosity, and higher porosity or larger pore sizes reduced toughness. Fibers had a greater effect on post-peak response in mixtures with higher porosity. Pore spacing and tortuosity helped explain these effects. A statistical model and sensitivity analysis quantified the influence of pore structure features and fiber content on fracture toughness.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is an open access online peer reviewed international journal that publishes research and review articles in the fields of Computer Science, Neural Networks, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plastic Engineering, Food Technology, Textile Engineering, Nano Technology & science, Power Electronics, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computational mathematics, Image processing, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, VLSI Testing & Low Power VLSI Design etc.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is an open access online peer reviewed international journal that publishes research and review articles in the fields of Computer Science, Neural Networks, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plastic Engineering, Food Technology, Textile Engineering, Nano Technology & science, Power Electronics, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computational mathematics, Image processing, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, VLSI Testing & Low Power VLSI Design etc.
ANALYSIS OF FRICTION AND LUBRICATION CONDITIONS OF CONCRETE/FORMWORK INTERFACESIAEME Publication
Concrete friction plays a fundamental role during various stages of construction and public works operations, including pumping, formwork filling and the production of facings. A tribometer for fluid materials has thus been developed to better study this friction. Tests performed with certain modifications of interface conditions show that friction is governed by interfacial characteristics (e.g. type of demoulding agent, roughness, velocity, pressure). The investigation showed that the tribometer is sensitive to obtain a real understanding of the mechanical behaviour of the Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC). The tests and observations made reveal that friction mechanisms depend on the properties of the interface. The interface appears to undergo two types of phenomena which depend of the pressure. The demoulding oil generates a reduction of the friction between the SCC and the formwork. Parameters specific to facing appearance are also addressed in this paper.
Three dimensional finite element modeling of pervious concrete pavementeSAT Journals
Abstract Pervious concrete has the unique characteristic of allowing water to pass through its porous matrix. . Pervious concrete pavement systems usually have three main layers, pervious concrete on the top, a subbase layer of aggregate for water storage in the middle and the subgrade (soil) layer below. Finite element modeling of this novel material is challenging due to its complex porous characteristics. In this paper, a method has been proposed to model pervious concrete pavement using finite element methods, which includes a modified approach to capture the unique vertical porosity distribution in the pervious concrete layer by averaging the distribution in three distinct vertical sections. The mechanical properties of the pervious concrete layer are assumed to vary along its depth since the porosity of the pervious concrete also varies with depth. ABAQUS, a general-purpose finite element software package was used to develop the model and perform the analysis. The model was validated through a convergence study, and in comparison with the analytical theory of tensile stress and deflection for traditional concrete pavement. In addition, the significance of the porosity distribution model was validated by comparing the results from EverFE – a specific software for pavement structure analysis. It was found that there is significant difference in tensile stress if modeled using the modified vertical porosity distribution in the previous concrete layer to more fully capture its vertical porosity distribution, as compared to an averaged porosity model in the previous concrete layer. It was also noted that compressive stress demand may have increased importance for pervious concrete, but only for highly porous applications which are not commonly used. Keywords: pervious concrete, vertical porosity, finite element, critical loading, stress, deflection
IJRET : International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology is an international peer reviewed, online journal published by eSAT Publishing House for the enhancement of research in various disciplines of Engineering and Technology. The aim and scope of the journal is to provide an academic medium and an important reference for the advancement and dissemination of research results that support high-level learning, teaching and research in the fields of Engineering and Technology. We bring together Scientists, Academician, Field Engineers, Scholars and Students of related fields of Engineering and Technology
DESIGN OF RIGID PAVEMENT AND ITS COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS BY USAGE OF VITRIFIED ...IAEME Publication
A country can achieve sustainable and rapid growth in all fields by improving its connectivity and transit systems. Connectivity of people to resources by improved transit mechanism results in improved living standards. Apart from other means, the major part of connectivity of any country is through road systems. Well designed and maintained pavements provide better and long lasting service. In India, all the major road systems are designed as flexible pavements only, because of their ease of construction and less time it takes to be opened to traffic operations. The major problem with flexible pavements is their design life and high maintenance costs. Also, globally reducing petrol reserves, which are used for bitumen and asphalt production are also increasing the need for alternatives. To tackle these problems, rigid pavements can be constructed. Although the cost of construction of rigid pavements is high, its long life, high load carrying capabilities and low maintenance cost will balance the initial cost aspect. Recently, many studies are being conducted on different pozzolanic admixtures which can be used as partial replacement of cement in rigid pavements, thereby reducing its cost and enhancing properties of the mix. Here, an attempt is made to reduce the construction cost of rigid pavements by incorporating Vitrified Polish Waste (VPW) as partial cement replacement in proportions of 5% for M40 grade concrete. Further, to enhance flexural properties of pavement, Recron fibre is added to optimum VPW in increments of 0.1%, then after C.C pavement is designed for two lane two way national highway and cost benefit analysis is performed.
Modelling of Permanent Deformation on Flexible Pavement Using Accelerated Pav...IOSR Journals
Abstract: The two major distresses encountered on flexible pavement under Indian conditions are fracture
(cracking) and longitudinal permanent deformation (rutting) which affects the serviceability of pavement.
Accelerated Pavement Testing Facility (APTF) is a tool which is a vital link for testing and measuring full-scale
field behaviour of cracking and rutting of pavement at in-situ conditions. Recently, CSIR-Central Road
Research Institute (CRRI) in India has procured a linear Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) type of APTF which is
presently being used for finding out the cracking and rutting behaviour of a flexible pavement consisting Dense
Bituminous Concrete (DBC) as wearing course and Dense Bituminous Macadam (DBM) as binder course apart
from the conventional granular layers above sub-grade.
The present paper deals with the development of a statistical model and its approach for pavement
rutting under numerous passes (bi-directional) for the layer specifications which are (i) 40 mm DBC (ii) 120
mm DBM (iii) 250 mm Wet Mix Macadam (WMM) and (iv) 300 mm Granular Sub-base (GSB) above the Subgrade,
which is an Indian Specification widely used for 30 Million Standard Axles (MSA) at 5% CBR. The
statistical model has been developed by observing / recording pavement surface profile using Laser
Profilometer (off board) for every 5,000 passes upto 50,000 passes, thereafter at every 10,000 passes upto
175,000 passes and then at every 25,000 passes upto 275,000 passes. The details of methodology adopted, load
applied, temperature and material properties have also been given in the paper.
Keywords: Flexible pavement, Rutting, Accelerated Pavement Testing Facility,Modelling,Profilometer
A NUMERICAL STUDY ON INTERFERENCE EFFECTS OF CLOSELY SPACED STRIP FOOTINGS ON...IAEME Publication
Foundations of structures often need to be placed close to meet the architectural as well as the functional requirements. In such cases, the combined action of footings is different from a single footing. It causes interference of the stress zones. In the present study, the interference effects of two closely spaced strip footings on the surface of cohesive and cohesionless soils are being investigated. Parametric studies are done for two footings by varying the spacing between the footings and the width of the footings. The results are presented in terms of efficiency factors. In the first case, both the footings are loaded simultaneously up to failure. In the second case, one of the footings representing an already existing foundation is loaded with half of the estimated failure load of isolated footing and adjacent footing loaded up to failure. The effect of interference is observed to be particularly significant in terms of the settlement. Effect of shear keys placed beneath the footings, at different locations beneath the footing and the interference of such footings is also studied in case of stiff clay. It is found that the presence of shear keys has a significant effect on the interference between the footings, compared to without the shear keys, especially in reducing the tilt of foundations.
Effect of gradation of aggregates on marshall properties of sdbc mix designeSAT Journals
Abstract
Semi Dense Bituminous concrete (SDBC) is the upper bituminous layer of the road subjected to moderate traffic loads. The
grading of aggregates used to prepare the SDBC mix should fall within the limits specified in MoRTH. For each aggregate
fraction there is a specified gradation range with lower and higher limits of aggregates passing through a particular sieve size.
The gradation range specified in MoRTH is quite wide. Therefore mix design by adopting a particular gradation of the aggregate
falling within the MoRTH range also affects the Marshall properties. The present study is taken to evaluate the Marshall property
of SDBC mix prepared using the aggregate having different grading within the grading limits specified by the MoRTH. In order to
study this aspect five mixes having different gradation were prepared. The gradation used correspond to Lower Grade (L.G.),
Lower Middle Grade (L.M.G.), Middle Grade (M.G.), Higher Middle Grade (H.M.G.), Higher Grade (H.G.) of the gradation
range specified by MoRTH . The test result revealed that there is significant variation in Marshall Properties of the mixes having
different gradation of the aggregates. The Stability values obtained is maximum for the Lower Middle Grade (L.M.G.) range of
MoRTH specification. The Flow values obtained is maximum for the Middle Grade (M.G.).The Optimum Bitumen Content
(O.B.C.) is also minimum in Lower Middle Grade (L.M.G.).
Keywords: Aggregate Gradation, Semi Dense Bitumen Concrete, Marshall Properties, Morth.
Study on rutting and surface behaviour of urban flexible pavementeSAT Publishing House
IJRET : International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology is an international peer reviewed, online journal published by eSAT Publishing House for the enhancement of research in various disciplines of Engineering and Technology. The aim and scope of the journal is to provide an academic medium and an important reference for the advancement and dissemination of research results that support high-level learning, teaching and research in the fields of Engineering and Technology. We bring together Scientists, Academician, Field Engineers, Scholars and Students of related fields of Engineering and Technology
IJRET : International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology is an international peer reviewed, online journal published by eSAT Publishing House for the enhancement of research in various disciplines of Engineering and Technology. The aim and scope of the journal is to provide an academic medium and an important reference for the advancement and dissemination of research results that support high-level learning, teaching and research in the fields of Engineering and Technology. We bring together Scientists, Academician, Field Engineers, Scholars and Students of related fields of Engineering and Technology
IJRET : International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology is an international peer reviewed, online journal published by eSAT Publishing House for the enhancement of research in various disciplines of Engineering and Technology. The aim and scope of the journal is to provide an academic medium and an important reference for the advancement and dissemination of research results that support high-level learning, teaching and research in the fields of Engineering and Technology. We bring together Scientists, Academician, Field Engineers, Scholars and Students of related fields of Engineering and Technology
ANALYSIS OF FRICTION AND LUBRICATION CONDITIONS OF CONCRETE/FORMWORK INTERFACESIAEME Publication
Concrete friction plays a fundamental role during various stages of construction and public works operations, including pumping, formwork filling and the production of facings. A tribometer for fluid materials has thus been developed to better study this friction. Tests performed with certain modifications of interface conditions show that friction is governed by interfacial characteristics (e.g. type of demoulding agent, roughness, velocity, pressure). The investigation showed that the tribometer is sensitive to obtain a real understanding of the mechanical behaviour of the Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC). The tests and observations made reveal that friction mechanisms depend on the properties of the interface. The interface appears to undergo two types of phenomena which depend of the pressure. The demoulding oil generates a reduction of the friction between the SCC and the formwork. Parameters specific to facing appearance are also addressed in this paper.
Three dimensional finite element modeling of pervious concrete pavementeSAT Journals
Abstract Pervious concrete has the unique characteristic of allowing water to pass through its porous matrix. . Pervious concrete pavement systems usually have three main layers, pervious concrete on the top, a subbase layer of aggregate for water storage in the middle and the subgrade (soil) layer below. Finite element modeling of this novel material is challenging due to its complex porous characteristics. In this paper, a method has been proposed to model pervious concrete pavement using finite element methods, which includes a modified approach to capture the unique vertical porosity distribution in the pervious concrete layer by averaging the distribution in three distinct vertical sections. The mechanical properties of the pervious concrete layer are assumed to vary along its depth since the porosity of the pervious concrete also varies with depth. ABAQUS, a general-purpose finite element software package was used to develop the model and perform the analysis. The model was validated through a convergence study, and in comparison with the analytical theory of tensile stress and deflection for traditional concrete pavement. In addition, the significance of the porosity distribution model was validated by comparing the results from EverFE – a specific software for pavement structure analysis. It was found that there is significant difference in tensile stress if modeled using the modified vertical porosity distribution in the previous concrete layer to more fully capture its vertical porosity distribution, as compared to an averaged porosity model in the previous concrete layer. It was also noted that compressive stress demand may have increased importance for pervious concrete, but only for highly porous applications which are not commonly used. Keywords: pervious concrete, vertical porosity, finite element, critical loading, stress, deflection
IJRET : International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology is an international peer reviewed, online journal published by eSAT Publishing House for the enhancement of research in various disciplines of Engineering and Technology. The aim and scope of the journal is to provide an academic medium and an important reference for the advancement and dissemination of research results that support high-level learning, teaching and research in the fields of Engineering and Technology. We bring together Scientists, Academician, Field Engineers, Scholars and Students of related fields of Engineering and Technology
DESIGN OF RIGID PAVEMENT AND ITS COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS BY USAGE OF VITRIFIED ...IAEME Publication
A country can achieve sustainable and rapid growth in all fields by improving its connectivity and transit systems. Connectivity of people to resources by improved transit mechanism results in improved living standards. Apart from other means, the major part of connectivity of any country is through road systems. Well designed and maintained pavements provide better and long lasting service. In India, all the major road systems are designed as flexible pavements only, because of their ease of construction and less time it takes to be opened to traffic operations. The major problem with flexible pavements is their design life and high maintenance costs. Also, globally reducing petrol reserves, which are used for bitumen and asphalt production are also increasing the need for alternatives. To tackle these problems, rigid pavements can be constructed. Although the cost of construction of rigid pavements is high, its long life, high load carrying capabilities and low maintenance cost will balance the initial cost aspect. Recently, many studies are being conducted on different pozzolanic admixtures which can be used as partial replacement of cement in rigid pavements, thereby reducing its cost and enhancing properties of the mix. Here, an attempt is made to reduce the construction cost of rigid pavements by incorporating Vitrified Polish Waste (VPW) as partial cement replacement in proportions of 5% for M40 grade concrete. Further, to enhance flexural properties of pavement, Recron fibre is added to optimum VPW in increments of 0.1%, then after C.C pavement is designed for two lane two way national highway and cost benefit analysis is performed.
Modelling of Permanent Deformation on Flexible Pavement Using Accelerated Pav...IOSR Journals
Abstract: The two major distresses encountered on flexible pavement under Indian conditions are fracture
(cracking) and longitudinal permanent deformation (rutting) which affects the serviceability of pavement.
Accelerated Pavement Testing Facility (APTF) is a tool which is a vital link for testing and measuring full-scale
field behaviour of cracking and rutting of pavement at in-situ conditions. Recently, CSIR-Central Road
Research Institute (CRRI) in India has procured a linear Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) type of APTF which is
presently being used for finding out the cracking and rutting behaviour of a flexible pavement consisting Dense
Bituminous Concrete (DBC) as wearing course and Dense Bituminous Macadam (DBM) as binder course apart
from the conventional granular layers above sub-grade.
The present paper deals with the development of a statistical model and its approach for pavement
rutting under numerous passes (bi-directional) for the layer specifications which are (i) 40 mm DBC (ii) 120
mm DBM (iii) 250 mm Wet Mix Macadam (WMM) and (iv) 300 mm Granular Sub-base (GSB) above the Subgrade,
which is an Indian Specification widely used for 30 Million Standard Axles (MSA) at 5% CBR. The
statistical model has been developed by observing / recording pavement surface profile using Laser
Profilometer (off board) for every 5,000 passes upto 50,000 passes, thereafter at every 10,000 passes upto
175,000 passes and then at every 25,000 passes upto 275,000 passes. The details of methodology adopted, load
applied, temperature and material properties have also been given in the paper.
Keywords: Flexible pavement, Rutting, Accelerated Pavement Testing Facility,Modelling,Profilometer
A NUMERICAL STUDY ON INTERFERENCE EFFECTS OF CLOSELY SPACED STRIP FOOTINGS ON...IAEME Publication
Foundations of structures often need to be placed close to meet the architectural as well as the functional requirements. In such cases, the combined action of footings is different from a single footing. It causes interference of the stress zones. In the present study, the interference effects of two closely spaced strip footings on the surface of cohesive and cohesionless soils are being investigated. Parametric studies are done for two footings by varying the spacing between the footings and the width of the footings. The results are presented in terms of efficiency factors. In the first case, both the footings are loaded simultaneously up to failure. In the second case, one of the footings representing an already existing foundation is loaded with half of the estimated failure load of isolated footing and adjacent footing loaded up to failure. The effect of interference is observed to be particularly significant in terms of the settlement. Effect of shear keys placed beneath the footings, at different locations beneath the footing and the interference of such footings is also studied in case of stiff clay. It is found that the presence of shear keys has a significant effect on the interference between the footings, compared to without the shear keys, especially in reducing the tilt of foundations.
Effect of gradation of aggregates on marshall properties of sdbc mix designeSAT Journals
Abstract
Semi Dense Bituminous concrete (SDBC) is the upper bituminous layer of the road subjected to moderate traffic loads. The
grading of aggregates used to prepare the SDBC mix should fall within the limits specified in MoRTH. For each aggregate
fraction there is a specified gradation range with lower and higher limits of aggregates passing through a particular sieve size.
The gradation range specified in MoRTH is quite wide. Therefore mix design by adopting a particular gradation of the aggregate
falling within the MoRTH range also affects the Marshall properties. The present study is taken to evaluate the Marshall property
of SDBC mix prepared using the aggregate having different grading within the grading limits specified by the MoRTH. In order to
study this aspect five mixes having different gradation were prepared. The gradation used correspond to Lower Grade (L.G.),
Lower Middle Grade (L.M.G.), Middle Grade (M.G.), Higher Middle Grade (H.M.G.), Higher Grade (H.G.) of the gradation
range specified by MoRTH . The test result revealed that there is significant variation in Marshall Properties of the mixes having
different gradation of the aggregates. The Stability values obtained is maximum for the Lower Middle Grade (L.M.G.) range of
MoRTH specification. The Flow values obtained is maximum for the Middle Grade (M.G.).The Optimum Bitumen Content
(O.B.C.) is also minimum in Lower Middle Grade (L.M.G.).
Keywords: Aggregate Gradation, Semi Dense Bitumen Concrete, Marshall Properties, Morth.
Study on rutting and surface behaviour of urban flexible pavementeSAT Publishing House
IJRET : International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology is an international peer reviewed, online journal published by eSAT Publishing House for the enhancement of research in various disciplines of Engineering and Technology. The aim and scope of the journal is to provide an academic medium and an important reference for the advancement and dissemination of research results that support high-level learning, teaching and research in the fields of Engineering and Technology. We bring together Scientists, Academician, Field Engineers, Scholars and Students of related fields of Engineering and Technology
IJRET : International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology is an international peer reviewed, online journal published by eSAT Publishing House for the enhancement of research in various disciplines of Engineering and Technology. The aim and scope of the journal is to provide an academic medium and an important reference for the advancement and dissemination of research results that support high-level learning, teaching and research in the fields of Engineering and Technology. We bring together Scientists, Academician, Field Engineers, Scholars and Students of related fields of Engineering and Technology
IJRET : International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology is an international peer reviewed, online journal published by eSAT Publishing House for the enhancement of research in various disciplines of Engineering and Technology. The aim and scope of the journal is to provide an academic medium and an important reference for the advancement and dissemination of research results that support high-level learning, teaching and research in the fields of Engineering and Technology. We bring together Scientists, Academician, Field Engineers, Scholars and Students of related fields of Engineering and Technology
Study of Boundary Value Analysis in Structural Engineering and Fluid Mechanic...ijtsrd
This paper presents a focused study on properties of porous concrete to widen its application to structural engineering. Mechanical properties like compressive strength, indirect tensile strength, flexural strength and physical properties like density, permeability and porosity are studied. To determine those parameters, twenty seven cubes, cylinders and prisms were tested. Also, three polymer impregnated porous concrete slabs were tested under pure bending moment to study the efficiency of selected resin to integrate particle of concrete to achieve a new generation in using porous concrete in structural engineering. Three different cement content specimens of porous concrete were considered, studied cement contents are 200 kg m3, 300 kg m3 and 400 kg m3. The results show that, increasing the cement content can increase the compressive strength, indirect tensile strength and flexural strength. Density of porous concrete is less than conventional concrete by 21 but permeability factor recorded higher value compared to conventional concrete by sixteen times. Increasing the cement content has no significant effect on either ultimate load or maximum deflection of polymer impregnated porous concrete slabs but the results recorded an achievement to use this concrete in structural engineering applications and give an easy way to cast special concrete like polymer concrete without special tools. Rambha Kumari "Study of Boundary Value Analysis in Structural Engineering and Fluid Mechanics using Homotopy Perturbation" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-3 , April 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30516.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/engineering/civil-engineering/30516/study-of-boundary-value-analysis-in-structural-engineering-and-fluid-mechanics-using-homotopy-perturbation/rambha-kumari
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is an open access online peer reviewed international journal that publishes research and review articles in the fields of Computer Science, Neural Networks, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plastic Engineering, Food Technology, Textile Engineering, Nano Technology & science, Power Electronics, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computational mathematics, Image processing, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, VLSI Testing & Low Power VLSI Design etc.
STUDY OF STRENGTH PROPERTIES OF POLYESTER FIBRE REINFORCED CONCRETEJournal For Research
Fiber Reinforced Concrete" is relatively a new construction material developed through extensive research and development work during the last two decades. Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) is defined as composite material which consists of conventional concrete reinforced by randomly dispersed short length fibers of specific geometry, made of steel, synthetic (polymeric) or natural fibers. Plain cement concrete has very low tensile strength and causes formation of micro cracks in stressed and unstressed states of concrete. Also, it has a low strain at fracture and brittleness with less ductility especially in case of High Performance Concrete. Fiber Reinforced Concrete is the answer to modify these properties of Plain Concrete. The recent development of Secondary reinforcement in Concrete in various fields has provided a strong technical base for improving the quality of the material. To overcome the deficiencies fibers are used as secondary reinforcement. FRC is Portland cement concrete reinforced with more or less randomly distributed fibers. The choice of fibers varies from synthetic organic materials such as polypropylene or carbon, synthetic inorganic such as steel or polyster, natural organic such as cellulose or sisal to natural inorganic asbestos. The interaction between the fiber and concrete matrix is the fundamental property that affects the performance of a cement based fiber composite materials. An understanding of this interaction is needed for forecasting the fiber contribution and for predicting the behavior of such composites. In present investigation concrete with addition of polyester fiber Recron 3s at various at dosages of 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% and 1.00% by weight of cement in the mix design is studied to find the optimum dosage of Polyster fiber for concrete.
Research Experience for Undergraduates : Comparative flexural behaviour of ce...Nishanth Patil
ABSTRACT :
A material with both strength and ductility is the need of the hour, and more so in the construction industry. Since reinforced concrete sections are relatively less ductile in compression and shear, flexural yielding is an attractive proposition, ensuing ductile behaviour of the structural elements and their connections. The much-celebrated union of the quasi-brittle cement matrix and ductile steel reinforcement is plagued by stiffness degradation, which subsequently hampers the structures ability to adapt to load reversals, unexpected overloading post-construction, settlement effects etc. In addition, the deformation incompatibility between the matrix and the reinforcement leads to non-uniform strain distribution in reinforcement and composite matrix, high interfacial bond stress, disintegration at loads lower than the expected capacity of the composite section, ultimately affecting serviceability of the structure.
The flexural performance of cement composites reinforced with Carbon black (CB) and Carbon fibres (CF) was investigated according to ASTM D790-2003 and IS 516-1999.The variation in flexural behaviour like flexural strength, flexural modulus, toughness index, ductility index and displacement at failure was different according to the proportion of CB used. Though the use of CB only, did not show promising results mainly owing to stiffening of the composite, the trends observed when CB was hybridized with CF were encouraging, primarily leading to a 44 % increase in toughness and 32% increase in the ductility index over the plain cement sample for an optimum loading of 5% CB and 0.25% CF by wt of cement. Although the mechanical strength of pure CB composites is reduced, but they satisfy the basic requirements of lightweight construction materials.
For Indepth Conclusions and Analytics, Contact the undersigned :
Nishanth A, Patil : +91 72045 76727
In many projects, water logging of parking and walkway is the major issue, especially during monsoon, as pavement and floors are normally impermeable. As the usage of pervious concrete is continuously increasing dramatically, a better understanding of linkages between microstructure,
transport properties and durability will assist in mix preparation and design. In this study deals with the effect of fine aggregate in strength and durability properties of pervious concrete. A total numbers of 42 specimens were cast cured and tested for compressive strength, flexural strength, and void ratio.
Saudi Arabia stands as a titan in the global energy landscape, renowned for its abundant oil and gas resources. It's the largest exporter of petroleum and holds some of the world's most significant reserves. Let's delve into the top 10 oil and gas projects shaping Saudi Arabia's energy future in 2024.
Forklift Classes Overview by Intella PartsIntella Parts
Discover the different forklift classes and their specific applications. Learn how to choose the right forklift for your needs to ensure safety, efficiency, and compliance in your operations.
For more technical information, visit our website https://intellaparts.com
Event Management System Vb Net Project Report.pdfKamal Acharya
In present era, the scopes of information technology growing with a very fast .We do not see any are untouched from this industry. The scope of information technology has become wider includes: Business and industry. Household Business, Communication, Education, Entertainment, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Distance Learning, Weather Forecasting. Carrier Searching and so on.
My project named “Event Management System” is software that store and maintained all events coordinated in college. It also helpful to print related reports. My project will help to record the events coordinated by faculties with their Name, Event subject, date & details in an efficient & effective ways.
In my system we have to make a system by which a user can record all events coordinated by a particular faculty. In our proposed system some more featured are added which differs it from the existing system such as security.
Courier management system project report.pdfKamal Acharya
It is now-a-days very important for the people to send or receive articles like imported furniture, electronic items, gifts, business goods and the like. People depend vastly on different transport systems which mostly use the manual way of receiving and delivering the articles. There is no way to track the articles till they are received and there is no way to let the customer know what happened in transit, once he booked some articles. In such a situation, we need a system which completely computerizes the cargo activities including time to time tracking of the articles sent. This need is fulfilled by Courier Management System software which is online software for the cargo management people that enables them to receive the goods from a source and send them to a required destination and track their status from time to time.
Explore the innovative world of trenchless pipe repair with our comprehensive guide, "The Benefits and Techniques of Trenchless Pipe Repair." This document delves into the modern methods of repairing underground pipes without the need for extensive excavation, highlighting the numerous advantages and the latest techniques used in the industry.
Learn about the cost savings, reduced environmental impact, and minimal disruption associated with trenchless technology. Discover detailed explanations of popular techniques such as pipe bursting, cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining, and directional drilling. Understand how these methods can be applied to various types of infrastructure, from residential plumbing to large-scale municipal systems.
Ideal for homeowners, contractors, engineers, and anyone interested in modern plumbing solutions, this guide provides valuable insights into why trenchless pipe repair is becoming the preferred choice for pipe rehabilitation. Stay informed about the latest advancements and best practices in the field.
Vaccine management system project report documentation..pdfKamal Acharya
The Division of Vaccine and Immunization is facing increasing difficulty monitoring vaccines and other commodities distribution once they have been distributed from the national stores. With the introduction of new vaccines, more challenges have been anticipated with this additions posing serious threat to the already over strained vaccine supply chain system in Kenya.
Student information management system project report ii.pdfKamal Acharya
Our project explains about the student management. This project mainly explains the various actions related to student details. This project shows some ease in adding, editing and deleting the student details. It also provides a less time consuming process for viewing, adding, editing and deleting the marks of the students.
About
Indigenized remote control interface card suitable for MAFI system CCR equipment. Compatible for IDM8000 CCR. Backplane mounted serial and TCP/Ethernet communication module for CCR remote access. IDM 8000 CCR remote control on serial and TCP protocol.
• Remote control: Parallel or serial interface.
• Compatible with MAFI CCR system.
• Compatible with IDM8000 CCR.
• Compatible with Backplane mount serial communication.
• Compatible with commercial and Defence aviation CCR system.
• Remote control system for accessing CCR and allied system over serial or TCP.
• Indigenized local Support/presence in India.
• Easy in configuration using DIP switches.
Technical Specifications
Indigenized remote control interface card suitable for MAFI system CCR equipment. Compatible for IDM8000 CCR. Backplane mounted serial and TCP/Ethernet communication module for CCR remote access. IDM 8000 CCR remote control on serial and TCP protocol.
Key Features
Indigenized remote control interface card suitable for MAFI system CCR equipment. Compatible for IDM8000 CCR. Backplane mounted serial and TCP/Ethernet communication module for CCR remote access. IDM 8000 CCR remote control on serial and TCP protocol.
• Remote control: Parallel or serial interface
• Compatible with MAFI CCR system
• Copatiable with IDM8000 CCR
• Compatible with Backplane mount serial communication.
• Compatible with commercial and Defence aviation CCR system.
• Remote control system for accessing CCR and allied system over serial or TCP.
• Indigenized local Support/presence in India.
Application
• Remote control: Parallel or serial interface.
• Compatible with MAFI CCR system.
• Compatible with IDM8000 CCR.
• Compatible with Backplane mount serial communication.
• Compatible with commercial and Defence aviation CCR system.
• Remote control system for accessing CCR and allied system over serial or TCP.
• Indigenized local Support/presence in India.
• Easy in configuration using DIP switches.
Hybrid optimization of pumped hydro system and solar- Engr. Abdul-Azeez.pdffxintegritypublishin
Advancements in technology unveil a myriad of electrical and electronic breakthroughs geared towards efficiently harnessing limited resources to meet human energy demands. The optimization of hybrid solar PV panels and pumped hydro energy supply systems plays a pivotal role in utilizing natural resources effectively. This initiative not only benefits humanity but also fosters environmental sustainability. The study investigated the design optimization of these hybrid systems, focusing on understanding solar radiation patterns, identifying geographical influences on solar radiation, formulating a mathematical model for system optimization, and determining the optimal configuration of PV panels and pumped hydro storage. Through a comparative analysis approach and eight weeks of data collection, the study addressed key research questions related to solar radiation patterns and optimal system design. The findings highlighted regions with heightened solar radiation levels, showcasing substantial potential for power generation and emphasizing the system's efficiency. Optimizing system design significantly boosted power generation, promoted renewable energy utilization, and enhanced energy storage capacity. The study underscored the benefits of optimizing hybrid solar PV panels and pumped hydro energy supply systems for sustainable energy usage. Optimizing the design of solar PV panels and pumped hydro energy supply systems as examined across diverse climatic conditions in a developing country, not only enhances power generation but also improves the integration of renewable energy sources and boosts energy storage capacities, particularly beneficial for less economically prosperous regions. Additionally, the study provides valuable insights for advancing energy research in economically viable areas. Recommendations included conducting site-specific assessments, utilizing advanced modeling tools, implementing regular maintenance protocols, and enhancing communication among system components.
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Fatigue perviousconc 2014
1. Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Engineering Fracture Mechanics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfracmech
Fracture behavior of pervious concretes: The effects of pore
structure and fibers
Benjamin Rehder, Kingsten Banh, Narayanan Neithalath ⇑
School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, United States
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 23 April 2013
Received in revised form 26 January 2014
Accepted 30 January 2014
Keywords:
Pervious concrete
Toughness
Crack extension
Pore structure
Fibers
a b s t r a c t
The fracture response of pervious concrete specimens proportioned for different porosities,
as a function of the pore structure features and fiber volume fraction, is studied. Stereolo-gical
and morphological methods are used to extract the relevant pore structure features of
pervious concretes from planar images. A two-parameter fracture model is used to obtain
the mode I stress intensity factor (fracture toughness) and the critical crack tip opening dis-placement
of notched beams under three-point bending. The experimental results show
that the fracture toughness is primarily dependent on the porosity of pervious concretes.
For a similar porosity, an increase in pore size results in a reduction in fracture toughness.
At similar pore sizes, the effect of fibers on the post-peak response is more prominent in
mixtures with a higher porosity, as shown by the residual load capacity, stress–crack
extension relationships, and resistance curves. These effects are explained using the mean
free spacing of pores and pore-to-pore tortuosity in these systems. A sensitivity analysis is
employed to quantify the influence of material design parameters on fracture toughness.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Pervious concrete is proportioned using gap-grading the coarse aggregates and eliminating sand so as to create a high
level of porosity (20–30%) and a network of large open pores (2–6 mm) in the material. The environmental benefits of per-vious
concretes have been well recognized with respect to stormwater run-off reduction and recharging groundwater [1–3],
and tire-pavement interaction noise reduction [4–6] when used as surface courses in parking lots and pavements. These ben-efits
have resulted in pervious concretes being increasingly used for load-bearing structures including pavements and over-lays
that require higher mechanical and durability properties. Unlike conventional concretes which are generally designed
for the lowest possible porosity, pervious concretes are designed for a non-minimal porosity, and a high degree of intercon-nectedness
in the pore structure so as to facilitate its functional demands. This, in turn, detrimentally affects the mechanical
and durability properties of the material. A few studies have reported methods to improve the compressive strength [7–9]
and freeze–thaw durability [10] of pervious concretes.
The major determinant of all the properties of pervious concretes is its pore structure, which generally has been consid-ered
to include the total pore volume fraction or the porosity, the characteristic pore sizes, and the degree of connectivity or
tortuosity in the pore system. These pore structure features depend on the material design parameters (water-to-cement
ratio, aggregate size, paste content, and degree of compaction). Traditionally, pervious concretes have been designed based
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 480 965 6023; fax: +1 480 965 0711.
E-mail addresses: bdrehder@asu.edu (B. Rehder), kingsten.banh@asu.edu (K. Banh), Narayanan.Neithalath@asu.edu (N. Neithalath).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engfracmech.2014.01.015
0013-7944/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2. 2 B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16
Nomenclature
/v volume fraction of pores (porosity)
/A area fraction of pores
S2 (l) two point correlation function
l length of line segment in two-point correlation (TPC) function
dTPC characteristic pore size from TPC
dcrit characteristic pore size from granulometry
k mean free spacing of pores
LA length of pore features per unit area of the image
s tortuosity
vf fiber volume fraction
KIC critical stress intensity factor (fracture toughness)
CTODc critical crack tip opening displacement
CMOD crack mouth opening displacement
P load
S span of the beam
E elastic modulus
a0 initial notch depth
ac critical crack length
ae effective crack length
Da crack extension (equal to ae a0)
d depth of the beam
b width of the beam
V (a0/d); V1 (ac/d); F (ac/d) geometric correction factors
Ci initial loading compliance
Cu unloading compliance
W self weight of the beam
GR strain energy release rate
a0, a1, a2, a3, b coefficients of the statistical model relating KIC, pore structure features, and fiber volume fraction
on a trial-and-error approach, but a sophisticated particle-packing based approach that relies on the virtual packing densities
and volume fractions of the mixture components and the actual packing density of the mixture has been recently developed
[11,12]. Extensive characterization of the pore structure in pervious concretes as a function of their material design param-eters
have been published [13–15], and the influence of pore structure on the mechanical [3,12,16] and transport [17–19]
properties of pervious concretes have been brought out through experimental means and computer simulations of recon-structed
three-dimensional structures [20,21].
This paper investigates the influence of the pore structure of pervious concretes and the incorporation of fibers on its frac-ture
behavior. This is important because, as explained earlier, pervious concretes are increasingly being subjected to load-carrying
applications. In a random heterogeneous two-phase material like pervious concrete with a dominant pore phase,
it is expected that the pore structure (including the total pore volume, characteristic sizes, representative pore spacing in
three dimensions, and pore-to-pore tortuosity) and its interaction with fibers influences the crack propagation resistance
of the material. In this study, the fracture response of notched beams in three-point bending is characterized using an effec-tive
elastic crack approach (the two-parameter fracture model). The pore structure features of pervious concretes propor-tioned
for different desired porosities are extracted using stereological and morphological principles [15,22] either from
planar images or three-dimensional structures reconstructed from planar images. The combined influence of pore structure
features and fiber volume on the fracture behavior of pervious concretes is examined so as to facilitate rational design of the
material structure for desired performance features. A statistical model combined with a Monte-Carlo based feature sensi-tivity
prediction method is reported, that helps ascertain the relative sensitivity of pore structure features and fiber content
on fracture toughness.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials and mixtures
The pervious concrete mixtures were prepared using Type I/II Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and limestone coarse
aggregates. In general, pervious concretes are proportioned using gap-graded aggregates. The most common aggregate sizes
used are #4 or 4.75 mm (passing 9.5 mm, retained on 4.75 mm sieve), or 3/800 or 9.5 mm (passing 12.5 mm, retained on
9.5 mm sieve) [4,12,19], which have been adopted in this study also. Maintaining a large open porosity necessitates a low
3. B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16 3
water-to-cement ratio (w/c of 0.30 is used in this study) and the absence of fine aggregates. Pervious concrete mixtures using
both of the above mentioned aggregate sizes were designed to achieve two different levels of porosity: 19% and 25%. For a
few mixtures, monofilament/fibrillated polypropylene fibers were incorporated at 0.5% or 1.0% by volume of the mixture.
Beyond a fiber volume of 1.0%, it was difficult to homogenize the mixture. The fibers were 54 mm long, and had a specific
gravity of 0.91. A total of 12 different pervious concrete mixtures were thus proportioned, having different pore structure
features. A mixture proportioning methodology based on granular particle packing method was employed to obtain the de-sired
porosities. Extensive details on the formulation of the proportioning method can be found in [11,23]. The virtual pack-ing
densities of the components of the mixture, the actual packing density of the mixture, and the corresponding volume
fractions are used to determine a compaction index, which in turn is related to the material porosity. The fresh porosity
of the samples were determined in accordance with ASTM C1688 [24]. The fresh concrete mixtures were cast in rectangular
beams 100 mm 100 mm in cross section and 400 mm long for fracture studies, and 100 mm diameter 200 mm long cyl-inders
for compressive strength testing and image analysis for pore structure feature determination. The casting and com-pacting
sequence for the beams and the cylinders to achieve the desired porosities were arrived at based on trial batches. A
conventional concrete mixture (cement content of 400 kg/m3 and w/c of 0.42) was also proportioned to facilitate compar-ison.
A total of 36 pervious concrete beams and 72 cylinders were cast. They were demolded after 24 h of curing in the molds
and then moist-cured for 28 days in a curing chamber (98% RH) before the respective tests were carried out. For the beam
specimens, 20 ± 1 mm deep notches were cut at the mid-span for fracture tests.
2.2. Determination of porosity and pore sizes
2.2.1. Volumetric porosity measurements
The porosity of the hardened specimens was experimentally measured by using a method that determines the volume of
water displaced by a fully submerged cylindrical specimen. 25 mm thick slices were cut off from the top and bottom of the
cylindrical specimens, and they were allowed to air dry overnight. The specimens were submerged in a tank of water while
placed in a metal cage connected to a scale. The mass of the specimen in air and in water (wair and wwater) and the specimen
volume (Vspecimen) was measured and the volumetric porosity (/v) determined as:
/v ¼ 1
ðwair wwaterÞ=qwater
Vspecimen
ð1Þ
2.2.2. Image analysis for area fraction of porosity, pore sizes, and mean free spacing
The cylindrical specimens which were used for volumetric porosity measurements were also used to obtain planar
images for the determination of different pore structure features. The cylindrical specimens, after removing the ends, were
cut into three equal parts by sectioning at approximately 42 mm thick intervals. At least six planar faces were thus available
from a single cylindrical specimen to be subjected to image analysis to obtain the pore structure features. Two specimens
were used to obtain the planar images for the analysis of pore structure features. To measure the area fraction of pores
(/A), planar sections of pervious concrete specimens were polished to obtain smooth surfaces and scanned using a flatbed
scanner in the grayscale mode at a resolution of 300 dpi. Five to eight good images were obtained corresponding to each
mixture for feature analysis after neglecting the ones that exhibited significant edge effects. The scanned images were
cropped into circular images having a diameter of 570 pixels, and were thresholded to separate the pore and solid phases.
The images were further processed to remove noise and then cropped into 400 pixel (66.7 mm) square images. Image J soft-ware
was used for image processing and analysis. Further explanation of the steps in image processing and analysis can be
found in [3,18,20]. The area fraction of the pores in the binary image was calculated for all the planar sections of each spec-imen,
and the average value reported as /A.
The pore sizes of the pervious concrete specimens were determined using Two-Point Correlation (TPC) functions [25] as
well as a granulometric operation. The TPC function can be obtained by randomly throwing line segments of length ‘‘l’’ with a
specific orientation into a two-dimensional image of a two-phase material and counting the fraction of times both end points
of the line lie in the phase of interest [25]. Fig. 1(a) shows a typical TPC function (S2(l)) for the planar image shown in the
inset. The value of the TPC function at l = 0 provides the porosity of the image. The correlation length (lTPC), which is defined
as the abscissa of the intersection point of the slope of TPC function at l = 0 and the horizontal asymptote at which l?1,
provides an estimate of the pore diameter (dTPC) as:
dTPC ¼
lTPC
1 /A
ð2Þ
/A is the pore area fraction of the image, which corresponds to the value of the TPC function at l = 0. Granulometric distri-bution
function is a morphological opening distribution function that can be used to characterize the feature size distribu-tion
in a two-dimensional image [18,22]. The method consists of applying morphological opening with structuring elements
(SE) of increasing size. For each opening, the pore area fraction of the image is computed by considering the sum of the pixel
values in the opened image and in the original image. The diameter of the SE corresponding to the local maximum in the
derivative function relates to a characteristic pore size of the material (dcrit), as shown in Fig. 1(b).Mean free spacing (k) is
4. 4 B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16
(a) (b)
lTPC
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Length of line segment (l), mm
0.24
0.22
0.20
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
Two point correlation function
rcritical
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Radius of structuring element, mm
0.24
0.20
0.16
0.12
0.08
0.04
0.00
Area fraction of porosity
0.20
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
Derivative of area fraction
Fig. 1. (a) Two-point correlation function (in the inset, a two-dimensional image used for TPC generation) and (b) granulometric opening function of a
planar image to determine the pore size.
defined as the average value of uninterrupted surface-to-surface distances between all the neighboring pores in three
dimensions. The mean free spacing can be considered to influence the mechanical properties such as the strength and frac-ture
behavior, and can be related to the pore area fraction (/A), and the perimeter length of the pore features per unit area of
the image (LA) using the following equation that is based on stereology:
k ¼
pð1 /AÞ/A
LA
ð3Þ
where /A and LA were extracted from planar images of pervious concrete specimens.
2.2.3. 3-D reconstruction and overall 3D tortuosity
Two-dimensional images (400 pixel square, Section 2.2.2) were used along with a correlation filter based three-dimen-sional
reconstruction algorithm [15,20,21] to generate three-dimensional pervious concrete structures. This algorithm along
with the TPC function (Fig. 1(a)) was used to reconstruct 300 voxel 300 voxel 300 voxel digitized three-dimensional
material structures having similar volumetric porosity (/V), pore surface area, and correlation function as that of the real
pervious concrete specimens (Fig. 2(a)). The hydraulic radii (ratio of the cross-sectional area of the pore to its perimeter,
or the ratio of total pore volume to the total surface area of pores) of these reconstructed structures were found to be lower
than those of the original two-dimensional images used for reconstruction. Hence, a sintering algorithm [26] was used to
modify the reconstructed structures in order to bring their hydraulic radii closer to that of the parent image. The computer
programs used for the reconstruction and the detailed procedure are elaborated in [20,27,28].
The reconstructed 3-D structures were used to determine the tortuosity of the pore structure of pervious concretes. A
watershed algorithm implemented in AvizoFire™ was used to accomplish this objective [29,30]. Connected components
were created through segmentation of the 300 images that made up the 3D system. Any pore that has a minimum size of
10 pixels that is connected to another pore in an adjacent image is labeled. A porosity analysis wizard in AvizoFire™ was
then used which first reduces any noise and then detects the main voids from the labeled connected pores. It then separates
the connected voids as individual objects that have a separation criteria of 300 voxels. A quantification tool was then
implemented to calculate the tortuosity, which calculates the average lengths between the connected pores through the
depth of the image and divides it by the image depth. Fig. 2(b) shows the interconnected pore system where the pore
Fig. 2. (a) 3D reconstructed structure of pervious concrete made using #4 aggregates and having a 25% porosity, (b) the pore network (in bright color), and
(c) a view of the internal structure. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
5. B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16 5
network is made transparent, and Fig. 2(c) shows a view of the internal structure. While the pores appear disconnected in 2D,
they are completely connected in 3D as evidenced by the high values of computational permeability of the reconstructed
structures [20,21].
2.3. Determination of strength and fracture parameters
The compressive strengths for various pervious concrete specimens were determined using a 490 kN (110 kip) closed-loop
universal testing machine operating in displacement controlled mode. The specimen ends were ground in a grinding
machine and polished to ensure a smooth surface. Neoprene-rubber pads were used at the specimen ends for compression
testing. A strain rate of 100 le/s was used and the stress–strain response recorded, from which the peak strength was
obtained.
The fracture response of pervious concrete specimens was characterized using the two-parameter fracture model [31–34].
The material fracture parameters – the critical stress intensity factor (KIC), and the critical crack tip opening displacement
(CTODc), were determined using three-point bend tests on notched beams, as shown in Fig. 3(a). While the test method
based on the two-parameter model suggests a notch depth equal to one-third of the beam depth, the value used in this study
was one-fifth, because the large porosity in the material coupled with a higher initial notch depth resulted in instabilities in
the measured crack mouth opening displacements (CMOD). The fracture tests were carried out on a closed loop testing ma-chine
with the CMOD, measured using a clip gage, as the feedback signal. Since it was experimentally difficult to initiate
unloading at 95% of the peak load as suggested in [33] (moreover, the random heterogeneous nature of the material results
in strength variations between specimens of the same proportions), a modified procedure that eliminates the operator con-trol
of unloading [35], and uses a CMOD of 0.5 mm as a preset point of unloading was used. The procedure to calculate KIC
and CTODc from the experimental load–CMOD relationships, including the modified method (the focal point method) has
been reported elsewhere [31–33,35]. The focal point method allows extending the two-parameter fracture model to provide
relationships between crack extension and the resistance to crack extension, as will be shown later in the paper. The two-parameter
fracture model involves the use of the peak load, loading and unloading compliances, the specimen and notch
geometry, and appropriate geometry correction factors. The geometry correction factors depend on the ratio of notch depth
(a) to the beam depth (d) and can be found in [33]. Fig. 3(b) shows the focal point method [35] used to determine the com-pliances
used in the calculation of KIC and CTODc. The loading compliance (Ci) was calculated as the inverse of the slope from
10% until 60% of the peak load. The unloading compliance was taken as the inverse of the slope of the unloading curve at the
point of maximum convexity. This value provided a reasonably close approximation of the averages of the compliances when
the slopes at the beginning of unloading or where the unloading curve meets the CMOD axis were considered. The differ-ences
between all the three different unloading compliances were less than 5%.
The equations used in the calculation of KIC and CTODc [33] are provided here for ease of reference.
(i) The elastic modulus (E) is determined as:
E ¼
6Sa0Vða0=dÞ
Cibd2 ð4Þ
Here, S is the span, a0 is the initial notch depth, Ci is the initial compliance (Fig. 3(b)), and b and d are the specimen breadth
and depth respectively. V (a0/d) is a geometric correction factor (Refer to [33]).
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. (a) Experimental set up for fracture tests based on the two-parameter fracture model and (b) a typical load–CMOD plot and determination of the
loading and unloading compliances (based on [35]).
6. 6 B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16
(ii) Using E obtained from the previous step and the unloading compliance (Cu) (Fig. 3(b)), the critical crack length, ac is
obtained using Eq. (4). Since V (ac/d) also contains ac, the solver function in Microsoft Excel is used to obtain ac.
(iii) The critical stress intensity factor (KIC) is determined as:
KIC ¼
3ðPmax þ 0:5WÞSðpacÞ0:5
2bd2 Fðac=dÞ ð5Þ
Pmax is the maximum load,Wis the self-weight of the beam and F (ac/d) is a geometric correction factor. The relationships for
the function F(a/d) for different a/d ratios can be found in [33].
(iv) The critical crack tip opening displacement (CTODc) is obtained from:
CTODc ¼
6PmaxSac
Ebd2 V1ðac=dÞ½ð1 bÞ2 þ ð1:081 1:149ac=dÞðb b2Þ
0:5
ð6Þ
Here, b = a0/ac
3. Results, analysis and discussion
3.1. Pore structure features: porosity, pore sizes, and tortuosity
The porosity and pore sizes of the chosen mixtures were determined as explained in Section 2.2. Volumetric porosity was
determined on cylindrical specimens while planar area fraction of pores was determined directly from the images as well as
through the implementation of TPC functions to the images. Fig. 4(a) and (b) depict the porosities of the specimens made
using #4 and 3/800 aggregates determined using all the methods mentioned above, which are found to be very comparable
to each other, and closer to the design values of 19% and 25%. Therefore volumetric porosity will be used as the measure of
the pore volume in the remainder of this paper since it is one of the easiest pore structure features to quantify. Fig. 5 shows a
comparison of pore diameters determined using the TPC and granulometric distribution functions for all the specimens stud-ied.
A general trend of increasing pore sizes with increasing aggregate sizes can be observed, with no real dependence of pore
sizes on porosity when similar size aggregates are used [15,18].
In order to assess the statistical similarity of pore structure features (porosity and pore sizes) determined using the dif-ferent
methods, a Mann–Whitney U-test (also known as Wilcoxon rank-sum test) [36] was used. This test is non-parametric,
and unlike the common t-test, does not make any assumptions related to the distribution. The null hypothesis in a Mann–
Whitney U-test is that the two samples come from identical populations. A p-value (probability associated with the smallest
level of significance that would lead one to reject the null hypothesis) greater than 0.05 indicates an acceptance of the null
hypothesis at the significance level of 5% (or confidence interval of 95%). The p-values for the Mann–Whitney tests that com-pared
the populations on which the porosity and pore sizes were measured were always greater than 0.05 for all the cases
evaluated in this paper.
The relationship between the volumetric porosity and tortuosity of the pore system determined using the watershed
algorithm on reconstructed 3D structures is shown in Fig. 6(a). An increase in porosity is observed to decrease the tortuosity
as shown in Fig. 6(b).1 For the same aggregate size, an increase in porosity results in larger number of pores, thereby reducing
the effective distance between the pores and thus the tortuosity. Theoretically, for a porosity of 1.0, the tortuosity also equals
1.0.
3.2. Compressive strength
The compressive strengths of the 12 different pervious concrete mixtures studied here are presented in Fig. 7(a). For a
design porosity of 19%, compressive strengths in the range of 18–23 MPa is obtained, whereas for a 25% design porosity,
the strength range is 10–15 MPa, which is in line with other reported studies [3]. The influence of fiber volume fraction is
shown in Fig. 7(a), and as expected, the incorporation of fibers does not provide any tangible benefits to compressive
strength. While the mixtures with 0.5% fiber volume do show some improvement in compressive strength at 19% porosity,
it could be attributed to the slightly lower actual porosity of the mixture (see Fig. 3). For the mixtures with a 25% design
porosity, the compressive strengths slightly decrease with increasing fiber volume fraction. In highly porous mixtures, higher
volume fraction of fibers likely result in fiber agglomeration, thereby spacing the solid phase further apart. The relationship
between the volumetric porosity and compressive strength for all the mixtures evaluated here is shown in Fig. 7(b), showing
the well-established dependence of strength on porosity.
1 In Fig. 6(b), only a 2D representation of the crack tortuosity is shown. The actual crack traverses three dimensions, depending on the pore and solid phase
orientation. To show the effects simplistically, this has been intentionally avoided in the figure. However, the actual tortuosity calculations do account for this.
7. B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16 7
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. Porosities of the pervious concrete specimens made using: (a) #4 aggregates, and (b) 3/800 aggregates.
Fig. 5. Comparison of pore sizes of pervious concretes determined using different methods.
0.16 0.18 0.2 0.22 0.24 0.26 0.28
Porosity (--)
2.6
2.4
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
Tortuosity (--)
19%
25%
φ=19%
φ=25%
(a) (b)
Fig. 6. (a) Relationship between volumetric porosity and tortuosity determined using a watershed algorithm on reconstructed 3D structures; (b) crack path
tortuosity for specimens with 19% and 25% porosity showing a lower (qualitative) tortuosity with increasing porosity.
8. 8 B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16
(a) (b)
0 0.5 1.0
Fiber volume fraction, %
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Compressive Strength, MPa
Fig. 7. Compressive strengths of pervious concretes as a function of: (a) fiber volume fraction and (b) porosity.
3.3. Fracture parameters: influence of pore structure and fibers
#4-19%
3/8-19%
#4-25%
3/8-25%
16 18 20 22 24 26 28
Vol. Porosity, %
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Compressive Strength, MPa
The influence of aggregate content [37,38] and porosity [39,40] on the fracture properties of porous materials including
conventional concretes has been reported. The use of fibers to improve the fracture response of concretes is also well studied
[41–43]. In this research, the fracture parameters of the pervious concrete specimens, and the influence of pore structure
features and flexible fiber reinforcement on these parameters were studied using an effective elastic crack approach. The
two-parameter fracture model used here incorporates the pre-peak non-linear behavior in a notched beam (notch size a0)
through an equivalent elastic material containing a crack of effective length ae such that ae a0. Based on this method, KIC
and CTODc can be used to characterize the fracture behavior of pervious concretes. This section primarily makes use of
the fracture parameters (KIC, CTODc, and critical crack length, ac) to bring out the influence of pore structure and fiber volume
fraction on the fracture response.
3.3.1. Load–CMOD response
Fig. 8(a)–(d) depicts the representative load–CMOD responses for the notched three-point bend beam specimens of per-vious
concretes made using different aggregate sizes and proportioned for different porosities. The responses as a function of
fiber volume for each of the mixture combinations are also shown. These figures show that the peak loads sustained by the
pervious concrete notched beams are generally invariant of the fiber volume fractions in the range evaluated here. The slope
of the pre-peak region in the load–CMOD response is also not very different irrespective of the fiber loading. The dependence
of porosity on the peak loads is roughly similar, with an approximately 20% reduction when the porosity is increased from
19% to 25%, notwithstanding the differences in aggregate sizes (comparing Fig. 8a,b and c,d).
3.3.2. Combined influence of fiber volume, porosity, and pore sizes on KIC and CTODc
It is instructive to examine the combined influence of the pore structure features and fiber volume on the load–CMOD
response of pervious concretes. One of the main objectives of using different volumes of synthetic fibers in these macropo-rous
materials is to evaluate if the detrimental effects of high porosity on the mechanical properties can be alleviated to
some extent. It has been shown that the effect of fibers is indistinguishable in the compressive strength results. In order
to evaluate the combined influence of porosity (/) and fiber volume (vf), the ratio of the load at a CMOD of 0.5 mm to the
peak load (P0.5mm/Pmax) is used as one of the mechanical properties of interest. This ratio is important since it provides a mea-sure
of the residual flexural capacity of the notched beam. The porosity for the conventional concrete is taken as zero for all
fiber loading levels.2 Figs. 9(a) and (b) demonstrate the trends of P0.5mm/Pmax as a function of both / and vf for the specimens
made using #4 and 3/800 aggregates respectively (i.e., for specimens consisting of smaller and larger pores respectively).
The residual capacity is shown to be invariant with changes in porosity at a given fiber volume fraction. For example, in
the absence of fibers, the residual capacity is the lowest, and the ratio does not change appreciably with changes in porosity
in the range studied. The effect of fibers at a given porosity is very evident from these figures. For conventional concretes
(corresponding to zero porosity in these figures), the residual capacity ratio increases from 12% to 40% when the fiber volume
is increased from 0 to 1.0%. For the pervious concretes with 19% and 25% porosity, the increase in residual capacity ratio var-ies
from 15% to 50% and 20% to 65% respectively when the fiber volume is increased from 0 to 1.0%. Thus it can be noticed
that the contribution of fibers towards enhancing the residual capacity increases with an increase in the specimen porosity,
providing an insight into the synergistic effects of fibers and pore volume fraction on the fracture performance of pervious
concretes. The explanation of this behavior is based on the fact that, increasing the porosity while maintaining the aggregate
size (or the pore size) same implies more number of pores, thereby reducing the mean free spacing between the pores. The
2 The porosity of conventional concretes, when compared to the large, open porosity of pervious concretes, can be safely considered to be negligible.
9. B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16 9
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 8. Load–CMOD relationships from which fracture parameters were derived. (a) and (b): 3/800 aggregate mixtures with 19% and 25% porosity, and (c) and
(d): #4 aggregate mixtures with 19% and 25% porosity.
statistical possibility that the fibers aid in bridging these pores and transfer load across the pores is higher when the pores
are closer to each other. Thus the fibers are more effective at higher porosities with respect to the flexural load capacity.
The fracture toughness (KIC) of the pervious concrete mixtures as a function of the fiber volume fraction is shown in
Fig. 10. Fig. 10(a) and (b) shows that, for both the porosities and both the aggregate sizes (or pore sizes), KIC increases with
fiber volume fraction. It is also noticed that, for the same porosities, an increase in pore size (3/800 aggregate specimens have a
larger critical pore size than the #4 aggregate specimens, as shown in Fig. 5) results in a reduction in KIC values. This can be
explained based on the idea of pore-to-pore tortuosity shown in Fig. 6. Considering that the aggregates in pervious concretes
are fracture resistant (the dominant crack path in the solid phase is through the paste binding the aggregates), and since the
paste thickness in pervious concretes is very small [9], the pore-to-pore tortuosity can be used as a representation of the
crack path tortuosity. This is because the advancing crack either traverses the pore, or if the pore size and orientation with
respect to the crack is favorable (generally for much smaller sizes than those encountered in pervious concretes made using
the aggregate sizes as described in this paper), crack blunting occurs which drives the crack along the pore-solid interface.
When the solid ligament lengths are small, as is the case in pervious concretes and especially with specimens having larger
pore sizes, the crack traverses from one pore into another, leading to an instantaneous initiation from this pore. This contin-uing
mechanism drives the crack through the specimen. Thus the pore-to-pore tortuosity can be considered to be an appro-priate
measure of the crack path distance. For the same porosity, a larger pore size results in lower tortuosity values, and
correspondingly, lesser distance for the crack to travel. The material structure does not facilitate increased dissipation of
the energy of the crack, thereby leading to lower KIC values. The tortuosity, and thus the crack path traversed are longer
in a specimen with smaller pore sizes, creating the opposite effect. Fig. 6(b) shows the crack tortuosity in pervious concretes
of same porosity, made using the different aggregate sizes to qualitatively reinforce this point.
A bubble plot showing the dependence of KIC on the porosity, pore sizes, and fiber volume is shown in Fig. 11(a). The lar-ger
the size of the bubble in this plot, the larger is the KIC value. Expectedly, this plot shows that the KIC values are higher
when the porosity is lower and the fiber volume fraction is higher. It can be noticed that, even though there is a synergistic
effect of fibers at a higher porosity as shown in Fig. 8, the overall benefits of having a lower porosity far outweigh this effect.
At a higher fiber volume and a lower porosity, the pore sizes do not come into play to large extent because the tortuosity of
the pore network is larger and energy is spent by the crack in traversing longer distances. In a forthcoming section, all of this
information is used as inputs into a statistical model and a stochastic simulation to quantify the relative sensitivity of the
pore structure features and fibers on the fracture toughness of pervious concretes. The influence of the pore structure fea-tures
and fibers on the CTODc values is quite different from those on the KIC values as can be noticed from Fig. 11(b). The
effect of porosity is much less pronounced on the CTODc values.
10. 10 B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16
(a) (b)
Fig. 9. Residual flexural capacity as a function of porosity and fiber volume fraction for pervious concretes with: (a) #4 aggregates (smaller pore size), and
(b) 3/800 aggregates (larger pore size).
(a) (b)
Fig. 10. KIC as a function of fiber volume for pervious concrete mixtures made using: (a) #4 aggregates, and (b) 3/800 aggregates.
(a) (b)
Fig. 11. Bubble plots showing the combined influence of porosity, pore sizes, and fiber volume on: (a) KIC, and (b) CTODc of pervious concrete mixtures. The
larger the bubble size, the larger the KIC or CTODc value. The bubble size range is maintained the same in both the figures for consistency.
Since KIC and CTODc are the critical fracture properties of a quasi-brittle material like concrete, it is useful to explore
their relationship. Ideally, KIC and CTODc depend only on the material. As can be observed in Fig. 12, among the material
11. B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16 11
Fig. 12. Relationship between KIC and CTODc for the pervious concrete mixtures.
properties, KIC is primarily dependent on the porosity (also shown in Fig. 11), with the values almost unchanged even when
the CTODc values change with increase in aggregate size and fiber volume. The higher CTODc values are typically observed
for the specimens with higher fiber volume fraction. It is worthwhile to mention here that CTODc is defined as the crack
opening displacement at the critical fracture load. The fibers will delay the opening, propagation, and coalescence of some
of these cracks, thereby accommodating a larger crack opening displacement before failure.
3.4. Crack extension and R-curve behavior of pervious concretes
Fig. 13 depicts the critical effective elastic crack length, ac (crack length at the peak load) as a function of the fiber volume
fraction. The critical crack length increases with an increase in fiber volume. For an ideally brittle material, the critical crack
extension is zero. Thus it is only natural that the critical crack length (or the extension) increases with fiber volume because
fibers increase the ductility of the material.
In order to further quantify the influence of porosity and fibers, the stress capacity of the specimens as a function of crack
length was determined. This provides an indication of the crack length ‘‘tolerability’’ of the material. The effective crack
length (ae) corresponding to every CMOD value in the load–CMOD curve was determined based on the focal point method
shown in Fig. 3(b). An ‘‘imaginary’’ unloading compliance for every point in the load–CMOD curve (Cux) was calculated by
joining the focal point to the corresponding point in the curve and determining the inverse of its slope. The same procedure
that was used to obtain ac in Section 2.3 was used here to obtain ae; the only difference being the use of a different value of Cu
corresponding to every CMOD value. The stress capacity of the specimen as a function of crack extension (Da = ae a0) is
shown in Fig. 14(a). Only the results for pervious concrete specimens made using #4 aggregates are shown here to keep
the discussion succinct. Very distinct trends are observed for the lower and higher porosity specimens (the solid lines in
Fig. 14(a)), with the lower porosity specimens showing a higher stress capacity for the same crack extension. The influence
of fibers, as expected, is minimal in the pre-peak region. For the same effective crack length, the fiber reinforced pervious
concrete specimens have a higher stress capacity, or in other words, the incorporation of fibers result in the pervious con-crete
specimens being able to tolerate a larger crack extension at the same stress. The influence of fibers becomes more
prominent when the crack extension increases, irrespective of the specimen porosity. While the tails of the stress–Da curve
for the non-fiber reinforced specimens are essentially parallel, they are likely to meet at some large crack extension (i.e., have
the same stress) for the fiber reinforced pervious concretes. This shows that, when the crack extension approaches a large
value, the porosity (in the considered range) is less consequential for fiber reinforced pervious concretes. The increased influ-ence
of fibers in the larger porosity specimens is evident here, which is in line with the results reported in a previous section
on the residual load capacity.
Fig. 13. Relationship between critical crack length and fiber volume fraction for the pervious concrete mixtures.
12. 12 B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16
(a) (b)
Fig. 14. (a) Stress and (b) strain energy release rate, as functions of crack extension for the pervious concretes made using #4 aggregates. The symbols in (b)
correspond to the crack extension at the peak load.
R-curves that indicate the change in fracture resistance in terms of the strain energy release rate GR as a function of crack
extension are shown in Fig. 14(b) for the pervious concrete specimens made using #4 aggregates, with and without the
incorporation of fibers. The behavior of specimens made using 3/800 aggregates are very similar (albeit with differences in
magnitude) and hence are not discussed here. R curves have been used to characterize toughening in fiber reinforced con-crete
and other composites [44–46]. The R-curve is not a material parameter and is geometry-dependent, but can be used to
compare the fracture resistance of pervious concretes in this case because the testing geometries were identical for all the
specimens. The critical crack extension (Da at the peak load) is represented in these curves using symbols. The strain energy
release rate was calculated as:
GR ¼
r2pa
E ½Fða0=dÞ
2
ð7Þ
The function F (a0/d) is the geometric function for the stress intensity factor [33]. The R curves shown in Fig. 14(b) demon-strate
three distinct regions. In the first region, there is a small increase in fracture resistance without any crack extension,
attributable to the bridging forces behind the crack tip. In the second region, there is a gradual increase in fracture resistance
with increase in crack extension. This region ends roughly at the crack extension corresponding to the peak load (marked
using symbols), after which the behavior of fiber-reinforced and non fiber-reinforced specimens diverge significantly. As
can be seen from Fig. 14(b), the G–Da relationship depends only on the porosity and is independent of the fiber volume until
the end of the second region (peak load). The third region for the specimens without fiber reinforcement is a plateau, with
little to no further increase in fracture resistance with increasing crack length. This stage corresponds to rapid propagation of
the crack. However, for fiber reinforced pervious concretes, there is a much larger increase in fracture resistance with crack
extension in the third region. This is attributed to the influence of fibers on the post-peak response of concretes that result in
toughening. It can be noticed from the R-curves shown here that for fiber reinforced pervious concretes, the larger porosity
specimen has a fracture resistance that approaches that of the lower porosity specimen at higher crack extensions, once
again demonstrating the larger influence of fibers in mixtures having a higher porosity.
3.5. Quantification of the influence of material design variables on KIC
The preceding sections have analyzed the influence of pore structure features of pervious concretes and the fiber volume
fraction on the fracture parameters extracted from the two-parameter fracture model. In this section, effort is made to sto-chastically
quantify the sensitivity of each of the material design variables to the fracture parameters, especially KIC. Under-standing
the relative influence of each of the material design parameters on the fracture toughness will help optimize the
pore structure of pervious concrete for mechanical performance.
3.5.1. A deterministic model relating KIC and material design variables
The development of a deterministic starting model that relates KIC to the parameters of interest in necessary before the
feature sensitivity can be stochastically evaluated. A regression-based method is chosen to accomplish this objective. All the
pore structure features described earlier (porosity, pore size, mean free spacing of pores, tortuosity) along with the fiber vol-ume
fraction have been used in the model. Several statistical models were evaluated, and a multiple non-linear regression
model was found to provide the highest degree of predictive capability. However, the use of all the terms individually in a
multiple regression model resulted in multi-collinearity issues. Multi-collinearity is a phenomenon in which two or more
model terms are highly correlated to each other, and this correlation coefficient is greater than the correlation of these terms
13. B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16 13
Table 1
Correlation matrix for the non-transformed and transformed models for KIC as a function of the experimental variables. The values in bold indicate multi-collinearity.
Model Model terms / dcrit k s vf KIC
Non-transformed model (with separate features) / 1.00
dcrit 0.26 1.00
k 0.59 0.62 1.00
s 0.92 0.56 0.70 1.00
vf 0.06 0.23 0.09 0.12 1.00
KIC 0.90 0.15 0.63 0.82 0.33 1.00
Transformed model (pore structure features grouped and transformations applied) Model terms //s k/dcrit vf KIC
//s 1.00
k/dcrit 0.06 1.00
vf 0.13 0.35 1.00
KIC 0.84 0.33 0.33 1.00
with the response variable [3,47]. Though multi-collinearity does not reduce the predictive capability of the model, it has the
potential to interfere with the assignment of sensitivity to the individual variables. Table 1 shows the correlation matrix of
the non-linear regression model containing all the individual model terms. The parameter interactions were ignored since
they were observed not to contribute much to the statistical significance of the model. The terms in bold in Table 1 show
the model terms demonstrating multi-collinearity.
In order to avoid multi-collinearity, the following actions were performed: (i) pore structure features were grouped based
on their physical relationships so as to result in reduced inter-variable correlation coefficients, and (ii) transformations ap-plied
to the model terms and/or the response variables to ensure the significance of the model and to reduce the effects of
multi-collinearity. Since the pore size (dcrit) and the mean free spacing of pores (k) are both indicators of characteristic length
scale of the phases in pervious concretes (dcrit is a representative length scale for the pores, and k is a representative length
scale for the solid phase), the ratio (k/dcrit) is included as a non-dimensional term in the model. Similarly, since it was shown
that the porosity and tortuosity are well related, //s was included as another term. The correlation matrix for the trans-formed
model is also shown in Table 1, with the multi-collinearity issues being mostly resolved. The correlation between
k/dcrit and vf is slightly higher than that between k/dcrit and KIC, but it has been ignored here considering the adequacy of
the model and the high R2 value (0.96) of prediction as shown in Fig. 15. The response variable is also transformed by a power
term b, which is equal to ½. The transformed model is expressed as:
ðKICÞb ¼ a0 þ a1vf þ a2
/
s þ a3
k
dcrit
ð8Þ
An analysis of variance found the model terms to be all significant with p-values far lesser than 0.05. The coefficients a0, a1,
a2, and a3 were obtained as 4.42, 34.76, 11.31, and 2.30 respectively.
3.5.2. Analyzing feature sensitivity through stochastic simulation
In this section, the use of a Monte-Carlo simulation to understand the sensitivity of the model terms on the predicted KIC
values is discussed. The deterministic model described in the previous section is used as the base model. For each of the
Fig. 15. Experimental and predicted values of KIC for all the pervious concrete specimens using the statistical model.
14. 14 B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16
Fig. 16. (a) Predicted histogram for KIC using Monte-Carlo simulation, and (b) sensitivity of the model parameters to KIC.
model parameters, the Anderson–Darling (A–D) statistic is calculated for several probabilistic distribution fits (including
normal, lognormal, Weibull etc.), and the distribution showing the lowest A–D statistic shows the closest fit to the data
[48]. For all the three terms (vf, //s, k/dcrit) in the transformed model for KIC, normal distribution was found to be the best
one representing the data. Each of these three terms was randomly generated 10,000 times based on the parameters of their
probability distributions, to determine the probability distribution of KIC. Fig. 16(a) shows the predicted histogram of prob-ability
distribution for 10,000 trials. The predicted KIC values also follow a normal distribution. The contribution of variance
or the sensitivity of the model parameters to the KIC values is shown in Fig. 16(b). The sensitivities were determined by using
the statistical forecasting tool, Crystal Ball™. The percentage sensitivity plotted in this chart, calculated by computing the
rank correlation coefficients between every input model term with the estimate of KIC, provides a meaningful indication
of the magnitude and direction of changes in KIC with changes in each of the input terms. Positive sensitivities indicate that
an increase in the input model term is associated with an increase in the output term. The larger the absolute value of the
percentage (%) sensitivity, the stronger is their correlation or interdependency. Even when the number of trials in the Monte-
Carlo simulation was increased to 20,000, the sensitivities were found to be unchanged. The term that influences KIC the
most is //s, and an increase in this parameter decreases the KIC value as shown by the negative sensitivity. Since the tortu-osity
decreases with increase in porosity, the term //s is amplified even with a slight increase in porosity or decrease in tor-tuosity,
explaining the larger magnitude of sensitivity associated with this term. Increase in the mean free spacing between
the pores or the solid phase spacing or decrease in pore size are found to increase KIC, as is the increase in volume fraction of
fibers. The quantification of feature sensitivities provided here reinforces the conclusions made in the earlier sections on the
influence of the pore structure features and fiber volume on KIC of pervious concretes.
4. Conclusions
This paper has provided a fundamental understanding of the influence of the pore structure features and fibers on the
fracture response of pervious concrete notched beams under three-point loading. The results from this study are expected
to facilitate the material design of pervious concretes for adequate fracture resistance. The major conclusions follow.
(i) Fibers generally were not found to influence the compressive strength to any significant degree, as is expected for con-ventional
concretes also. Among the pore structure features, porosity exerted the maximum influence on compressive
strength.
(ii) For the pervious concretes evaluated in this study, it was found that the fracture toughness (KIC) was primarily depen-dent
on the porosity, even though KIC was found to increase with increase in fiber volume fraction. For a given poros-ity,
an increase in the pore size resulted in a reduction in the KIC values. It was shown that, though the fibers are more
effective at higher porosities, the overall benefits of having a lower porosity far outweigh this effect when KIC values
are considered. The critical crack length increased with increase in fiber volume irrespective of porosity and pore sizes.
(iii) The residual flexural capacity of the pervious concrete specimens were found to be invariant with porosity at a given
fiber volume fraction. The contribution of fibers towards improving the residual flexural capacity was higher at a
higher porosity (provided the pore size remained the same). In this case, there are more number of pores, thereby
reducing the mean free spacing between the pores. This increased the possibility that the pores are bridged by the
fibers, resulting in the observed effect. The increased influence of fibers at higher porosity was also observed in the
stress–crack extension relationship and in the R-curves.
15. B. Rehder et al. / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 118 (2014) 1–16 15
(iv) A statistical model was used to express KIC as a function of the pore structure features and fiber volume. The terms in
the model were grouped and the model transformed to reduce the effects of multicollinearity. A stochastic simulation
for sensitivity revealed that KIC was mostly dependent on //s. Since the tortuosity decreases with increasing porosity,
the sensitivity of this term was amplified.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the financial support from National Science Foundation (NSF) for the conduct of this study
through a CAREER award to the third author. The second author acknowledges an NSF REU supplement award that helped
carry out a part of this work. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the authors who are responsible for the facts and
accuracy of the data presented herein, and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of NSF, nor do the contents con-stitute
a standard, specification or a regulation.
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