Characteristics of explosive spalling of high performance concrete under high temperatures and its inhibition

Title: Characteristics of explosive spalling of high performance concrete under high temperatures and its inhibition
Author(s): G.-F. Peng, S.Y.N. Chan, Q Ma
Paper category : conference
Book title: International Conference on Advances in Concrete and Structures
Editor(s): Ying-shu Yuan, Surendra P. Shah and Heng-lin Lü
Print-ISBN: 2-912143-41-1
e-ISBN: 2351580176
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2003
Pages: 453 - 460
Total Pages: 8
Nb references: 14
Language: English

Abstract: 
In this paper, experimental investigation was conducted to identify the characteristics of HPC's thermally explosive spalling, the effect of polymer fiber on fire behavior of HPC, and hence to establish measures for inhibiting spalling occurrence. Experimental results show that, for a given concrete, after exposure to temperatures up to 600°C, the crack growth resistance curves (R-curves) exhibited a flattening tendency. The R-curve flattening reveals that HPC became more ductile but undesirably weaker at elevated temperature. As a result, HPC allowed larger lengths of stable crack growth to occur prior to the onset of an unstable cracking condition. The concrete cracking observations showed that the consequences of rapid heating, as in the ISO standard fire, and slow heating are quite different. Explosive spalling is an extreme case of the internal cracking driven mainly by vapor pressure. It confirmed the vapor pressure mechanism for spalling behavior that should be more significant for denser concrete. This mechanism was also supported by the cracking observations. PP polymer fiber played a positive effect and alleviated explosive spalling of concrete, but aramid fiber played a negative effect on spalling behavior.

Online publication: 2003-08-10
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00