Analysis of asphalt concrete fatigue through energy methods

The fatigue life of asphalt concrete is an important parameter in the functional design of a road construction. In the Netherlands it is determined by the four Point Bending (4PB) test on laboratory prepared specimen. During the past years there is an increase in desire to validate the laid down asphalt pavement to the established functional...

Fatigue Load Model Safety: Verifying Reliability for Reinforced Concrete Railway Structures

It was unclear what level of reliability was provided by appliance of the Eurocode load models for fatigue due to train loads, meaning that it might be insufficient. Therefore, it was investigated what the provided reliability is, compared to what is should be. Within this report, the focus is solely on fatigue induced by bending moments on...

Dynamically loaded beam failure under corroded conditions

De-icing salts, used on roads in heavy winters, may enter reinforced concrete (RC) structures via its capillary pore system or via cracks, initiating reinforcement corrosion and reducing its remaining service-life. Vehicles passing real bridges exert a dynamic impact action that might activate a fatigue failure mechanism. In order to generate...

Interaction between an asphalt revetment and the sand subsoil under wave attacks: Medium scale experiments with old and new asphalt concrete

Nowadays, in the Netherlands there are about 600 kilometers of asphaltic revetments lying mainly on sea dikes of which approximately 400 km of dike is covered with asphalt concrete [STOWA, 2011]. Asphalt concrete revetments are applied the most and are mostly of older age. Because of the older age it needs intensive care involving periodic...

Fatigue and shear failure. Differences between NEN and Eurocode.

Within this document the differences arising from the transition of the NEN (Dutch code) to the Eurocode are studied with respect to shear failure and fatigue. These differences are investigated on a global level, where in addition the fib Model Code is taken into account. In the next part the actual differences are determined within a case...

High strength fibre reinforced concrete: Static and fatigue behaviour in bending

Recently, a number of high strength and ultra high strength steel fibre concretes have been developed. Since these materials seem very suitable for structures that might be prone to fatigue failure, such as bridge decks, the understanding of the static and fatigue bending behaviour is vital. In order to evaluate the bending behaviour of high and...

Renovation techniques for fatigue cracked orthotropic steel bridge decks

This dissertation presents the research into renovation techniques for orthotropic steel bridge decks. These techniques are needed to solve fatigue problems in the decks of these bridges, as several fatigue cracks have been detected in the deck structure of these bridges the last decade. A well-known example of fatigue cracks are those observed...

Fatigue Failure of Concrete in Tension

Concentric tensile and flexural tensile fatigue tests were carried out on plain concrete specimens. The effects of pulsating tensile loadings as well as of alternating tensilecompressive loadings were studiep. The results of the constant-amplitude tests have been presented in S-N diagrams and a Goodman diagram. From these results it emerged that...