Fracture evolution in concrete compressive fatigue experiments based on X-ray micro-CT images

This study examines the fatigue performance of plain concrete specimens under uniaxial compression. The experimental program was developed for investigating the fracture evolution in concrete cubic specimens subjected to cyclic compression using the advanced X-ray micro-computed tomography system SkyScan 1173. As compared to other experiments, the 3D micro-CT damage images were shown for a various number of loading cycles. The quantitative evolution of the cracking volume with increasing fatigue damage revealed a strongly non-linear shape. The increase of the total crack volume was higher by 30% as compared to the monotonic fatigue test.