A Damage Model for Concrete under Fatigue Loading

For concrete, fatigue is an essential mechanical behavior. Concrete structures subjected to fatigue loads usually experience a progressive degradation/damage process and even an abrupt failure. However, in the literature, certain essential damage behaviors are not well considered in the study of the mechanism for fatigue behaviors such as the development of irreversible/residual strains. In this work, a damage model with the concept of mode-II microcracks on the crack face and nearby areas contributing to the development of irreversible strains was proposed. By using the micromechanics method, a micro-cell-based damage model under multi-axial loading was introduced to understand the damage behaviors for concrete. By a thermodynamic interpretation of the damage behaviors, a novel fatigue damage variable (irreversible deformation fatigue damage variable) was defined. This variable is able to describe irreversible strains generated by both mode-II microcracks and irreversible frictional sliding. The proposed model considered both elastic and irreversible deformation fatigue damages. It is found that the prediction by the proposed model of cyclic creep, stiffness degradation and post-fatigue stress-strain relationship of concrete agrees well with experimental results.