Experimental investigation of the strain rate dependent impact behaviour of cementitious composites Available to Purchase

As for most construction materials, cementitious composites exhibit a strain rate dependent mechanical behaviour. The frequent occurrence of impact loads during the lifetime of civil engineering constructions makes the experimental research into the impact properties of construction materials sensible. To this purpose split Hopkinson bar tests are often used. However, due to the specific behaviour of plain cementitious materials—low strains and softening—special attention has to be paid to some aspects of the experimental setup, the treatment of the recorded signals and the interpretation of the final results. Some results of impact tensile tests on microconcrete are presented. These results show that the strength, the strain at maximum stress, the ultimate deformation and the energy absorbing capacity are higher than in static test conditions.