Fracture toughness of autoclaved aerated concrete

✍ Scribed by F.H. Wittmann; I. Gheorghita

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 267 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-8846
• DOI: 10.1016/0008-8846(84)90055-3

✦ Synopsis

So far, few experiments to determine fracture toughness of autoclaved aerated concrete have been reported in the literature. Tests on three different types of autoclaved aerated concrete using six different specimen geometries have been carried out. Four of the six specimen geometries chosen lead to nearly identical results for KIC. The two other types of specimen were used to determine fracture energy Gf. KIC increases with compressive strength of the material. Fracture energy is about one tenth of the corresponding value of normal concrete. The influence of rate of loading on KIC can be expressed by means of a power law. These results suggest that linear elastic fracture mechanics is a suitable approximation for the calculation of crack propagation in autoclaved aerated concrete.