Compressive Strength of Concrete Cores under High Strain Rates

A pulse-shaped split Hopkinson pressure (SHPB) was employed to determine the dynamic compressive mechanical responses of concrete cores. The loading pulses in SHPB experiments were precisely controlled to ensure that the core specimen deforms at a nearly constant strain rate under dynamically equilibrated stress during compression. A modified two-parameter Weibull distribution was used to analyze the test data. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test was used to decide whether test data come from a population with this distribution. On the basis of the test data, Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test, and probability plot, it is found that the modified Weibull model can be applied to compressive strength for concrete cores. In addition, the strain rate effect on the compressive strength of cores can be accurately predicted from the modified Weibull model. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.