Synopsis
The paper describes two simple testing techniques for evaluating the effectiveness of a repair material in sealing cracks and in transmitting tensile stresses across cracks. The techniques also enable comparisons to be made between different repair materials used under varying conditions of temperature and moisture. For the first testing technique, grooves in concrete beams were formed during casting for crack simulation purposes, and were filled with different repair materials such as epoxy resins and mortars. Then the beams were subjected to different temperatures before testing in flexure. For the second testing technique, halved concrete cylinders were joined by repair materials and the cylinders were subjected to different temperatures before testing in splitting tension. The results indicated that the effectiveness of the repair materials in transmitting the tensile stresses varied and was reduced considerably at higher temperatures. The beam and cylinder results under the same testing conditions were generally consistent for the same material.
