Behavior of prestressed concrete subjected to low temperatures and cyclic loading
Concrete has exhibited excellent behavior in cryogenic containment vessels for several decades under essentially static conditions. Tests were conducted to determine the response of prestressed lightweight concrete subjected to high-intensity cyclic loading and simultaneous cryogenic thermal shock, simulating the relatively dynamic conditions encountered offshore or in seismic areas. Lightweight concrete has several attractive properties for cryogenic service including: (1) very low permeability, (2) good strain capacity, (3) relatively low thermal conductivity, and (4) a low modulus of elasticity. Experimental results indicated that the mechanical properties of plain lightweight concrete significantly increase with moisture content at low temperatures, while cyclic loading fatigue effects are reduced at low temperatures. Also, tests on uniaxially and on biaxially prestressed lightweight concrete both indicate that the test specimens performed well under severe cyclic loading and cryogenic thermal shock with only moderate reduction in flexural stiffness. Supplementary tests conducted in this study indicate that conventionally reinforced concrete degrades significantly faster than prestressed concrete when subjected to cyclic loading and thermal shock.
- Research Organization:
- California Univ., Berkeley (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6265160
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Behavior of composite confined concrete under cyclic loading
TEMP-STRESS---A thermomechanical finite element program for the analysis of plane and axisymmetric reinforced/prestressed concrete structures: User`s manual