Effects of fatigue loading on structure and properties of pavement concrete

Based on the objective of the DFG (German research foundation) funded research group 1498 to clarify the influences on the ASR damage process, this paper deals with two focuses of investigation. In the first focus the technical requirements for the characterisation concerning the degradation and the formation of cracks in concrete pavements by the pre-damage as a result of fatigue loading were created. This was realized by the implementation and the optimisation of a monitoring system in the cyclic four point bending test to capture simultaneously the formation of cracks in the beam under sinusoidal bending load. In addition, the X-ray 3D-computed tomography was enhanced for the high-resolution quantitative spatial crack analysis in the drilling cores extracted of the beam under sinusoidal bending load without and with a pre-damage. Building on the first focus, in the second focus of investigation a significant change of the fracture-mechanical properties of the concrete as a result of fatigue loading has been demonstrated in numerous experiments using small specimens extracted from the beam under sinusoidal bending load.