Relation between electrically conductive properties and flexural behaviors of ultra‐high‐performance concrete

Abstract

AbstractThe ability of the resistivity measurement to study the crack propagation behavior of the ultra‐high‐performance concrete (UHPC) under flexural loading was analyzed, and focused on investigating the effects of crack length and the fracture process zone (FPZ) on the change in electrical resistivity in the post‐cracking stage. The results indicated that the strain‐dependent resistivity characteristic was able to drawn by a linear‐fitting equation before the crack initiated (stage I). After the crack initiated, the change in electrical resistance of the UHPC can be good to reflect the crack development in the post‐cracking stages (II and III), then, the relationship between the crack propagation behavior and the fractional change in electrical resistance (FCR) can be quantitative analysis by using an exponential function. It was also found that the evolution of the crack length and FPZ also had an appreciable impact on the variation tendency of the FCR. The crack length increased dramatically at first and then increased smoothly with the increase of FRC, while the FPZ showed the reverse change trend.