Experimental Investigation of Mechanical Behaviors of Self-Compacting Concrete under Cyclic Direct Tension

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is increasingly applied in the construction industries due to its advantages of outstanding workability and eco-friendliness. However, few experimental studies on the mechanical behaviors of SCC under cyclic direct tension are available in the literature. In this work, experimental investigations of mechanical behaviors of SCC under cyclic direct tension were conducted. Especially, direct tensile load equipment was developed. It is found that the envelope stress-strain curve under cyclic direct tension is close to that under monotonic direct tension; however, it is different from that in a compressive case. It is also revealed that the ratio of unloading strain to irreversible strain is approximately linearly dependent on unloading strain. The evolutions of energy dissipation for SCC under both cyclic direct tension and compression are similar to those of normally vibrated concrete. In addition, Poisson’s ratio is observed to be nearly 0.21 for SCC. Furthermore, a damage model enabling characterization of the stress-strain curve under both monotonic and cyclic loading was proposed and verified against experimental results. Therefore, the results in this work provide original research material for studying and modelling the mechanical behaviors of SCC under uniaxial cyclic direct tension.