FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF STEEL FIBRE REINFORCED

CONCRETE CONTAINING CEMENT ADDITIVES

G Kaur
1
, S P Singh
1
, S K Kaushik
2


1. Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar, India
2. Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India








ABSTRACT. Based upon the statistical distribution of flexural fatigue life data and
flexural fatigue strength of the Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) containing blends of
Silica fume (SF), Metakaolin (MK), Limestone powder (LP) and Fly ash (FA), the influence
of these inserts on the flexural fatigue performance of concretes is probed. An extensive
experimental work has been carried out to obtain the flexural fatigue lives of concretes
containing cement additives and control concrete incorporating 1.0% steel fibre volume
fraction. In total 7 concrete mixes were cast, with 100% Portland cement (PC) mix referring
as control mix. Other six mixes were proportioned to replace 30% PC with these cement
additives in binary and ternary style to demonstrate their effect on flexural fatigue properties.
Approximately 294 flexural fatigue tests were conducted supplemented by approximately 168
static flexural strength tests on all the concrete mixes. The fatigue test data thus obtained has
been modeled by two-parameter Weibull distribution. The two-million cycles endurance limit
/ fatigue strength has been estimated based upon the percentage of the ultimate strength of
concretes under static loading as well as in terms of actually applied flexural stress.

Keywords: Cement additives, Weibull distribution, Fatigue strength


Gurbir Kaur is a Research Associate in Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology
Jalandhar, India. Her research interests include reinforced concrete, recycling of materials in
concrete.

Dr S P Singh is a Professor of Civil Engineering at Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of
Technology Jalandhar, India. He has worked as a Commonwealth Research Fellow at the
Concrete Technology Unit of the University of Dundee, UK from October 2006 to March
2007. His research interests are fatigue behaviour of concrete composites, reinforced
concrete, recycling of materials in concrete.

Dr S K Kaushik is Fellow of National Academy of Engineering and formerly Professor of
Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India. He has been very
active in research and consultancy. His research interests are fibre reinforced concrete-
behaviour and applications, sifcon, high performance concretes, non-destructive testing and
evaluation of concrete structures.
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INTRODUCTION

The last few years have been very productive in the development of cement based composites
from different viewpoints: increasing interest in environmental-friendly concretes, for the
sake of sustainable development, applications in outstanding civil engineering structures,
increase of mass constructions and many others. Concrete should satisfy various requirements
that were not imposed in the past century or that did not have the importance earlier. This
refers to various ecological aspects and sustainability which are of worldwide concerns these
days. Sustainability has become an increasingly important characteristic for concrete
infrastructure, as the production of Portland cement (the most common binder in concrete) is
an energy-intensive process that accounts for a significant portion of global carbon dioxide
emissions and other greenhouse gases. As such, even slight improvements in the design,
production, construction, maintenance of plants and equipment and materials performance of
concrete can have enormous social, economic and environmental impacts [1].
Large quantities of industrial and agricultural by-products are generated from manufacturing
processes and service industries, resulting in major environmental concerns. With the
increasing awareness about the environment, scarcity of land-fill space and due to its ever
increasing cost, the utilization of waste materials and by-products in concrete technology /
construction has become an attractive alternative to disposal. In literature the addition of
mineral admixtures or cement additives to concrete either as an ingredient of cement or as
partial replacement of cement are also termed as secondary raw materials, supplementary
cementitious materials, fillers or powders depending upon their role in the fresh and hardened
state of concrete. The use of cement additives as a raw material in cement, concrete, and
other construction materials is to be expected because of their voluminous availability;
economical manufacture of concrete due to lower cement content; minimizing the
environmental impact due to green house gases, which would otherwise have been produced
in the process of cement production. These cement additives possess in themselves little or no
cementitious value, but will in finely divided form and in the presence of moisture react with
cement at ordinary temperatures to form compounds possessing cementitious properties.
Further, their utilization improves the microstructure, mechanical and durability properties of
mortar and concrete, which cannot be easily achieved by the use of Portland cement (PC)
alone. The cement additives contribute to the improved properties of concrete through
chemical activity (usually pozzolanic activity) and microfiller effect [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8].
Fatigue loading is of concern in the design of concrete bridges, offshore structures and
concrete pavements for roads and airfields. Fatigue is a process of progressive, permanent
structural change occurring in a material which is subjected to conditions which produce time
fluctuating stresses and strains. The structural changes may culminate in cracks or complete
fracture after a sufficient number of fluctuations and as a result the structural member may
fail at a load well below its strength under statically applied loads. Parameters such as loading
conditions, load frequency, boundary conditions, stress level, number of cycles, matrix
composition and environmental conditions will influence the fatigue performance of
concrete. The fatigue behaviour of concrete during its service life is an important
characteristic for assessing its useful life. The degree of damage and the sustaining time in the
cycles depend on the character and structure of components, and the characteristic and effect
of the interface, the dimension of original crack and resistance to crack extension and
propagation under repeated load. Although the effect of steel fibres on fatigue performance is
remarkable, it is difficult for the steel fibres to play their full role in strengthening concrete, if
there are weaknesses in the interface between the fibre and the matrix [9].


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RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE

The attempts to study the benefits of using cement additives in various fields of concrete
research i.e. workability, mechanical or durability properties, are continuously increasing.
Although several mechanical and durability related properties of concrete containing cement
additives have been discussed till now, very few studies have been devoted to the flexural
fatigue properties of composites containing such materials. It is well established that a
material subjected to fatigue loads fails well below its static strength. Therefore, it is of
paramount interest to investigate the fatigue performance of concrete containing cement
additives. The significance of the present research is to examine the effect of substituting PC
in different proportions by FA, LP, SF and MK on the flexural fatigue performance of
different mix combinations. This experimental work recommends the local materials and
industrial wastes for use in modern construction jobs which are predominantly subjected to
fatigue loading.


EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME

Materials and Mix Proportions

The properties of different materials used were determined in the laboratory as per relevant
codes of practice. The materials used in this research programme are 43 Grade Portland
cement (PC), crushed gravel as coarse aggregates and natural sand as fine aggregates. The
cement additives which were used as partial replacement of PC to produce binary and ternary
mixes are FA, LP, MK and SF. Figure 1 presents the particle size distribution of all powders
used in the study. To maintain workability, Glenium 51 was used as superplasticizer.
Corrugated rectangular shaped steel fibres (35 mm long, 2.0 mm wide and 0.6 mm thick),
supplied by M/s Stewols Pvt. Ltd., Nagpur (India) were employed at a constant volume
fraction of 1.0% in all the mixes. This study examines the contribution of cement additives on
the flexural fatigue performance of SFRCs where steel fibres are considered as a constant
parameter.


Figure 1 Particle size analysis of the powders used in the study
0
20
40
60
80
100
0.1 1 10 100 1000
C
U
M
M
U
L
A
T
I
V
E

S
I
Z
E
,

%
PARTICLE SIZE, m
Limestone powder (LP)
Metakaolin (MK)
Silica fume (SF)
Fly ash (FA)
Portland cement (PC )
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The present investigation on the flexural fatigue performance of SFRC mixes containing LP,
FA, MK and SF as cement additives in different proportions, involved preparing 7 mixes -
control concrete (100% PC); binary blended mix combinations (70% PC + 30%LP)
designated as CL and (70% PC + 30% FA) designated as CF; ternary blended mix
combinations (70% PC + 20% LP + 10% SF) designated as CLS; (70% PC + 20% LP
+10% MK) designated as CLM; (70% PC + 20% FA + 10% SF) designated as CFS and
(70% PC + 20% FA + 10% MK) designated as CFM respectively. The reference concrete
mix proportions used was 1: 1.53: 1.89 (PC: fine aggregate: coarse aggregate) with
water/binder ratio of 0.46. Table 1 summarizes the concrete mix combinations used in this
investigation.

Table 1 Mix combinations considered in the study

MIX
WATER/
BINDER
RATIO
SAND/
BINDER
RATIO
AGGREGATE/
BINDER
RATIO
LP/PC
RATIO
FA/PC
RATIO
MK/PC
RATIO
SF/PC
RATIO
Control:
(100%PC)
0.46 1.53 1.89 -

-
- -
CL:
(70%PC+30%LP)
0.46 1.53 1.89 0.43

-
- -
CLM:
(70%PC+20%LP+
10%MK)
0.46 1.53 1.89 0.29

-
0.14 -
CLS:
(70%PC+20%LP+
10%SF)
0.46 1.53 1.89 0.29

-
- 0.14
CF:
(70%PC+30%FA)
0.46 1.53 1.89 - 0.43 - -
CFM:
(70%PC+20%FA+
10%MK)
0.46 1.53 1.89 - 0.29 0.14 -
CFS:
(70%PC+20%FA+
10%SF)
0.46 1.53 1.89 - 0.29 - 0.14

The cube and beam moulds were cleaned, brushed and oiled well before the commencement
of the casting. The homogenous concrete mix was poured into the specimen moulds in two
layers, each layer vibrated properly. The specimens were marked with their respective
designations after three or four hours of setting and were allowed to set in the moulds for 24
hours. Subsequently the specimens were demoulded and immersed in fresh water for curing
until the age of test. The cube and beam specimens were water cured for 28- and 90-days
respectively. Subsequently, the beam specimens were kept in laboratory condition for about
two months before being tested. The higher curing age of 90 days was chosen for specimens
top be tested in static flexure and flexural fatigue tests so as to minimize the possible strength
gain during fatigue tests.
The specimens for each mix type were cast in nine batches, with each batch comprising of
three cube specimens of size 150x150x150 mm for static compressive strength tests and nine
beam specimens of size 100x100x500 mm for static and flexural fatigue tests. The average 28
days static compressive strength values for CL, CLM and CLS are 36.96, 48.65 and 46.70
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MPa respectively, whereas, the average 28 days static compressive strength values for CF,
CFM and CFS are 38.44, 45.84 and 44.78 MPa respectively. The average static compressive
strength for control concrete was observed to be 40.18 MPa.
The average static flexural strength values for CL, CLM and CLS are 6.74, 9.79 and 9.45
MPa respectively, whereas, the average static flexural strength values for the CF, CFM and
CFS concretes are 8.67, 9.43 and 8.84 MPa respectively. The average static flexural strength
for control concrete was observed to be 8.08 MPa.


FLEXURAL FATIGUE ANALYSIS

The main thrust of the present investigation was on the flexural fatigue testing of beam
specimens. After the static flexural strength testing of a particular batch was over, the
remaining specimens from the same batch were tested in flexural fatigue. The flexural fatigue
tests were conducted on the same machine as the static flexural strength test. In the fatigue
tests also, the specimens were simply supported over an effective span of 450 mm and loaded
at the third points. The fatigue parameters include static flexural strength (f
r
), stress level (S),
stress ratio (R) and the loading frequency. The load cycle characteristic value or stress ratio
R is expressed as
max
min
f
f
R = , where f
min
and f
max
refer to the minimum and maximum fatigue
stress respectively. The stress level S is expressed as
r
f
f
max
, where f
r
is the static flexural
strength. The fatigue tests were performed with stress levels ranging from 0.90 to 0.75, at a
constant stress ratio value of 0.1. The tests were carried out in load or force control mode
using a constant amplitude non-reversed sinusoidal waveform with a loading frequency of 10
Hz. Since fatigue testing is a very expensive and time consuming procedure and a large
number of specimens were proposed to be tested, an upper limit of two-million cycles was
selected. The machine was set so that it terminates the test as and when the specimen failed or
the upper limit was reached. However, most of the specimens failed below this limit.


Probabilistic Analysis of Fatigue Life Data of Concretes

The analysis of fatigue life data requires techniques from statistics, especially probabilistic
analysis and linear regression. The fatigue design is clouded with uncertainties arising from
the assumptions made in analysis as well as the inherent material variability [10]. So, the
probabilistic reliability theory is an efficient way to adequately account for the uncertainties.
Various mathematical models like the logarithmic-normal distribution and the Weibull
distribution have been suggested for the statistical description of fatigue life data. On the
basis of physically valid assumptions, sound experimental verifications, relative ease in its
use, and better developed statistics, the Weibull distribution is most commonly employed for
the statistical description of fatigue data [10, 11, 12, 13, 14].
The Weibull cumulative distribution function P
f
(N) can be expressed as two-parameter
Weibull distribution i.e. Eq. (1) in following way [12, 13]:

u
N
N P
f
exp 1 ) ( (1)
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While most researchers prefer to use the distribution function, the survivorship function has a
simpler form and has been used in present study. The probability of survival or survivorship
function or reliability function, L
N
, may be defined as:
L
N
= 1 P
f
(2)
Substitute the value of P
f
(N) from Eq. (1) into Eq. (2) to get Eq. (3). The reliability function
L
N
can be written in the following manner [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]:

u
N
L
N
exp (3)
The distribution of fatigue life of plain concrete, at a particular stress level approximately
follows the two-parameter Weibull distribution [10, 11, 13, 14]. Fatigue life distributions of
SFRC at 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% fibre volume fraction can also be modeled by the two-
parameter Weibull distribution [16]. The two-parameter Weibull distribution has also been
successfully used by various researchers in their respective investigations [16, 17, 18].
Therefore, the two parameter Weibull distribution was used in the present study to model the
fatigue life data of SFRC containing binary and ternary blends of cement additives in the
following section.

Establishing fatigue life distributions

The fatigue life data obtained for the tested beam specimens for all concretes corresponding
to four different stress levels (0.90, 0.85, 0.80 and 0.75) and at a constant stress ratio (0.1)
have been arranged in an ascending order at all stress levels. Table 2 presents the fatigue life
data of CFS concrete and its analysis at all stress levels. In same manner, other concrete
mixes were also analysed at all stress levels.
The graphical method has been employed to establish two-parameter Weibull distribution for
fatigue life data of concretes at a particular stress level. Three methods namely: the graphical
method, the method of moments and the maximum likelihood estimate are presented to
estimate the distribution parameters. The probability distributions for the fatigue life data of
all concretes at different stress levels has been established in the following sections.
Chauvenets criterion [19] was applied to all data points at each stress level and points
meeting this criterion were identified and excluded from further analyses.

Analysis of fatigue life data by the Graphical method
The graphical method has been employed to show that the statistical distribution of fatigue
life of a concrete at a certain stress level, follows the two-parameter Weibull distribution.
Equation (3) is reproduced here for reference.

u
N
L
N
exp (3)
Taking the logarithm twice on both sides of Eq. (3)
) ln( ) ln(
1
ln ln u N
L
N
=

(4)
Setting

=
N
L
Y
1
ln ln , ) ln( N X = , ) ln(u =
We get = X Y (5)
Equation (5) represents a linear relationship between Y and X. In order to obtain the graphic
form of Eq. (5), the fatigue life data at a given stress level was arranged in ascending order of
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cycles to failure. The empirical survivorship function L
N
for each fatigue life data at a given
stress level is calculated as follows [10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18]:


Table 2 Fatigue life data and its analysis at different stress levels for CFS mix.

i Ni ln (N
i
)
( ) 1 k
i
P
f
+
=

N
L
1
ln ln
Stress level (S) = 0.90
1 56971 10.9503 0.0909 -2.3506
2 67091 11.1138 0.1818 -1.6061
3 71382 11.1758 0.2727 -1.1443
4 79971 11.2894 0.3636 -0.7941
5 87971 11.3847 0.4545 -0.5007
6 96024 11.4723 0.5454 -0.2377
7 111091 11.6181 0.6363 0.0115
8 125526 11.7403 0.7272 0.2618
9 153544 11.9417 0.8181 0.5334
10 162544 11.9987 0.9090 0.8746
Stress level (S) = 0.85
1 157173 11.9651 0.0909 -2.3506
2 185436 12.1305 0.1818 -1.6061
3 236342 12.3730 0.2727 -1.1443
4 273544 12.5192 0.3636 -0.7941
5 320291 12.6769 0.4545 -0.5007
6 385903 12.8633 0.5454 -0.2377
7 439714 12.9939 0.6363 0.0115
8 571134 13.2554 0.7272 0.2618
9 657618 13.3964 0.8181 0.5334
10 728044 13.4981 0.9090 0.8746
Stress level (S) = 0.80
1 260710 12.4712 0.0909 -2.3506
2 343158 12.7459 0.1818 -1.6061
3 414754 12.9354 0.2727 -1.1443
4 425432 12.9609 0.3636 -0.7941
5 507262 13.1368 0.4545 -0.5007
6 891058 13.7002 0.5454 -0.2377
7 975658 13.7909 0.6363 0.0115
8 1105498 13.9158 0.7272 0.2618
9 1198675 13.9967 0.8181 0.5334
10 1357473 14.1211 0.9090 0.8746
Stress level (S) = 0.75
1 306063 12.6315 0.1000 -2.2504
2 351857 12.7709 0.2000 -1.4999
3 735240 13.5079 0.3000 -1.0309
4 914230 13.7258 0.4000 -0.6717
5 1201435 13.9990 0.5000 -0.3665
6 1826043 14.4177 0.6000 -0.0874
7 1957542 14.4872 0.7000 0.1856
8 1987259 14.5023 0.8000 0.4759
9 1996374 14.5068 0.9000 0.8340
10 2000000
**

* Rejected as outliers by Chauvenets criterion, not included in analysis
** Specimen treated as run out, not included in analysis


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( ) 1 +
=
k
i
L
N
(6)

where i represents the failure order number and k represents the number of fatigue data or
sample size under consideration at a particular stress level S. When a graph is plotted
between

=
N
L
Y
1
ln ln and ) ln( N X = and the data falls approximately along a straight
line, it indicates that the two-parameter Weibull distribution is a reasonable assumption for
the fatigue behaviour of concrete. The best fit straight line is drawn through the data using the
method of regression analysis, such as the least square technique. The parameters (the shape
parameter and the characteristic life u) can be obtained from the regression coefficients
directly. Figure 2 presents the graphical analysis of fatigue life data for CFS mix at all stress
levels.



Figure 2 Graphical analysis of fatigue life data at all stress levels for CFS mix.

Analysis of fatigue life data by the Method of Moments

To obtain the parameters of the Weibull distribution by this method, an estimation of
appropriate sample moments, such as sample mean and sample variance are required.
Wirsching and Yao (1970, 1982); Oh (1986); Singh and Kaushik (2000); Mohammadi and
Kaushik (2005) used the same method to obtain the Weibull distribution parameters. The
shape parameter can be deduced from an expression given below (Wirsching and Yao
1982; Oh 1986, 1991):
( )
08 . 1
CV

=
(7)
The characteristic life u can be estimated from the Eq. (8) as follows:
R = 0.97
R = 0.99
R = 0.96
R = 0.93
-3
-2.5
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
l
n
l
n
(
1
/
(
1
1
/
L
N
)
)
ln(N)
S=0.90
S=0.85
S=0.80
S=0.75
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+
=
1
1

u (8)
Equations (7) and (8) can be used to estimate the values of the parameters of the Weibull
distribution for all concretes at various stress levels. The calculations to estimate parameters
for all concretes by this method are not presented in the paper.

Analysis of fatigue life data by Method of Maximum-likelihood Estimate
The distribution parameters of the Weibull distribution can also be obtained using the method
of maximum likelihood estimate. The probability density function of Weibull distribution can
be written as follows [11, 14]:

f
N
(n) =
u

n
u-1
expj
n
o

[ (9)
where = u

(10)
The maximum likelihood equations can be modified as follows:

=
1
k
n
I
u

k
I=1
(11)
n

In (n

)
R
=1
n

R
=1

1
u

=
1
k
ln (n
I
)
k
I=1
(12)
where * and * are the maximum likelihood estimates of and respectively. The shape
parameter is first obtained from Eq. (12) by a trial and error procedure using a simple
computer program. The average value of shape parameter calculated by the graphical
method and the method of moments can be used as a first trial. Then the maximum-likelihood
estimator for the fatigue life data, at a particular stress level, is calculated from Eq. (11).
Finally, the parameter u is determined from Eq. (10).
The average value of estimated parameters (shape parameter and scale parameter u) of the
Weibull distribution using different methods of analysis for fatigue life of control concrete
and LP and FA based concretes at all stress levels are presented in Table 3.

Table 3 The Weibull parameters of fatigue life at different stress levels for control and LP
based concretes



STRESS
LEVEL
(S)
WEIBULL
PARA-
METER
CONTROL
CONCRETE
CL CLM CLS CF CFM CFS
0.90
2.142 2.416 2.606 2.713 2.579 2.786 2.990
u 1787 30604 40108 66824 49131 68455 113665
0.85
1.396 1.649 1.772 1.834 1.698 1.902 2.075
u 36906
11732
8
235715 256506 163310 408030 450508
0.80
1.270 1.4817 1.698 1.763 1.592 1.732 1.905
u 168982
40990
0
511199 577219 559363 718492 855169
0.75
1.184 1.379 1.482 1.630 1.499 1.571 1.687
u 772430
91484
2
1035779 1311790 1120080 1363611 1442866
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Examining variability in the fatigue life distributions of different concretes

It can be observed from Tables 3 that for concretes containing cement additives, the average
values of the shape parameters were higher than that of the control concrete. The increased
values of the shape parameters for concretes containing cement additives reduce the
variability in the distribution of fatigue life to different extents as compared to the control
concrete. From Table 3 it can be observed that the average values of the shape parameters for
the fatigue life distribution of LP based concretes ranged from 2.416 to 1.379, 2.606 to 1.482
and 2.713 to 1.630 for the CL, CLM and CLS mixes respectively. The maximum increase in
the values of the shape parameters for CL, CLM and CLS mixes with respect to the control
concrete was found to be 18.12% (at S=0.85), 33.70% (at S=0.80) and 38.82% (at S=0.80)
respectively. A maximum decrease of about 18.36% (at S=0.80), 28.55% (at S=0.80) and
30.79% (at S=0.75) in the coefficient of variation in the fatigue life data of CL, CLM and
CLS mix was observed as compared to the control concrete. Clearly, the CLS mix has
performed better against other LP based mixtures in terms of reduction in variability in the
distribution of fatigue life. The average values of the shape parameter of the Weibull
distribution for the fatigue life of CF, CFM and CFS concrete ranged from 2.579 to 1.499,
2.786 to 1.571 and 2.990 to 1.687 respectively as S moved from 0.90 to 0.75 as shown in
Table 3. The maximum increase in the values of the shape parameter for CF, CFM and CFS
mixes with respect to the control concrete was found to be 26.60% (at S= 0.75), 36.38% (at
S=0.80), 50.00% (at S=0.80) respectively. A maximum decrease of about 25.02% (at
S=0.75), 30.51% (at S=0.75) and 35.75% (at S=0.75) in the coefficient of variation in the
fatigue life data of CF, CFM and CFS mixes was observed as compared to the control
concrete. Based upon the reduced variability in the fatigue life distributions of FA based
concrete, the CFS mix performed the best among other FA based mixes.


Figure 3 The variation in shape parameters of LP and FA based concrete mixes with respect
to control concrete at different fatigue stress levels





0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Control CL CLM CLS CF CFM CFS
S
H
A
P
E

P
A
R
A
M
E
T
E
R
S=0.90
S=0.85
S=0.80
S=0.75
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Two Million Cycles Endurance Limit/Flexural Fatigue Strength
Fatigue strength is the highest stress that a material can withstand for a given number of
cycles without breaking. It is also called as endurance strength. The ASTM defines fatigue
life as the number of stress cycles of a specified character that a specimen sustains
before failure of a specified nature occurs. In the present case, the endurance limit was
defined as the maximum flexural fatigue stress at which the beam specimen could withstand
two-million cycles of non-reversed fatigue loading, expressed as a percentage of the
corresponding static flexural strength or modulus of rupture. The two-million cycle limit was
chosen to approximate the life span of a structure that may typically be subjected to fatigue
loading. It has been reported that if the specimen could withstand two-million cycles without
failure, it could last for all practical purposes forever [20].
The fatigue behaviour of concrete is generally expressed in terms of the S-N curves. The S-N
curves have been plotted to determine the two-million cycles fatigue strength/endurance limit
of the concrete mixes. The fatigue test data have been presented as S-N relationships, with
the maximum fatigue stress expressed as a percentage of the strength under static flexural
loading, and as relationships between the actually applied fatigue stress and number of
loading cycles to failure. The predicted fatigue strengths for two-million cycles of load
application for the CL and CF mixes are 71% and 73% of the static flexural strength
respectively whereas the two-million cycles fatigue strength for control concrete is 73%.
Hence, it can be affirmed that the CF mix has equal fatigue strength to that of control
concrete, the CL mix however, has slightly reduced performance on the other hand.
Substituting 30% PC content with equal amount of FA in concrete and yet achieving quite
similar fatigue strength/endurance limit favours the use of CF mix as compared to the control
concrete mix. It has been observed that the two-million cycles fatigue strength/endurance
limit for the CLM and CLS concrete mixes were 73% and 74% of its static flexural strength
respectively. This contributes towards similar or slightly enhanced performance of concrete
containing cement additives as compared to that of control concrete. The predicted two-
million cycles endurance limit for the CFM and CFS concrete mixes were 75% and 76% of
its static flexural strength respectively. Figure 3 summarizes the fatigue performance based
upon stress as a percentage of static flexural strength for all concrete mixes of the present
investigation. Among different concrete mixes the highest value of the fatigue strength at
two-million cycles of load application i.e. 76% of the static flexural strength was achieved for
the CFS concrete mix.
The two-million cycles fatigue strength/endurance limit can also be represented in terms of
actually applied fatigue stress. The two-million cycles fatigue strength/endurance limit for the
CL and CF concrete mixes in terms of actually applied stress were 4.8 MPa and 6.1 MPa
respectively. The ternary based LP concrete mixes has shown better performance as
compared to control concrete. The two-million cycles fatigue strength/endurance limit for the
CLM and CLS concrete mixes in terms of actually applied stress were 7.2 MPa and 7.0 MPa
respectively. The two-million cycles fatigue strength/endurance limit for the CFM and CFS
concrete mixes in terms of applied stress were 7.2 MPa and 6.6 MPa respectively. Clearly,
the results of the two-million cycles fatigue strength/endurance limit in terms of actually
applied stress differs from the two-million cycles fatigue strength/endurance limit based on
applied maximum fatigue stress expressed as a percentage of corresponding static flexural
strength. Figure 4 shows the fatigue performance of different control and LP ternary
concretes at two million cycles based on actually applied flexural stress. The concrete that
performs best in terms of absolute strength is the CLM mix as observed from the S-N curves.


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Figure 3 Comparison of fatigue performance based upon stress as a percentage of static
flexural strength for all concretes.


Figure 4 Comparison of fatigue performance based on actually applied flexural stress for all
mix concretes.

0.7
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
2 3 4 5 6 7
S
T
R
E
S
S

L
E
V
E
L
,

S
LOG
10
(N)
Control (100%PC)
CL (70%PC+30%LP)
CF (70%PC+30%FA)
CLM (70%PC+20%LP+10%MK)
CFM (70%PC+20%FA+10%MK)
CLS (70%PC+20%LP+10%SF)
CFS (70%PC+20%FA+10%SF)
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5
A
P
P
L
I
E
D

F
L
E
X
U
R
A
L

S
T
R
E
S
S
,

M
P
a
LOG
10
(N)
CL (70%PC+30%LP)
CF (70%PC+30%FA)
CLM (70%PC+20%LP+10%MK)
CLS (70%PC+20%LP+10%SF)
Control (100%PC)
CFM (70%PC+20%FA+10%MK)
CFS (70%PC+20%FA+10%SF)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The financial assistance in the form of fellowship to the first author from the Ministry of
Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India is gratefully acknowledged.
The authors also acknowledge the support of the staff of Structures Testing Laboratory at Dr
B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India during the experimentation
work reported in the paper.


CONCLUDING REMARKS
1. The probabilistic distributions for the fatigue life of concrete containing binary and
ternary blends of cement additives and control concrete have been established. With
the higher values of correlation coefficients at all stress levels, the successful
modeling of fatigue life data by the two-parameter Weibull distribution has been
confirmed. The distribution parameters i.e. shape parameter and characteristic life
used to define the fatigue life distributions have been estimated by the different
methods of analysis.
2. There has been reduction in variability in the distribution of fatigue life of concretes
containing cement additives as compared to control concrete. This can be interpreted
from the fact that higher values of the shape parameters indicate lower variability in
the distribution of fatigue life. The maximum increase in the values of the shape
parameters for CL, CLM and CLS mixes with respect to the control concrete was
found to be 18.12%, 33.70% and 38.82% respectively whereas, maximum decrease of
about 18.36%, 28.55% and 30.79% in the coefficient of variation for the fatigue life
data of CL, CLM and CLS mix was observed as compared to the control concrete.
Clearly, the CLS mix has performed better against other LP based mixtures in terms
of reduction in variability in the distribution of fatigue life.
3. Similarly, for FA based concretes, the maximum increase in the values of the shape
parameter for CF, CFM and CFS mixes with respect to the control concrete was found
to be 26.60%, 36.38%, 50.00% respectively. A maximum decrease of about 25.02%,
30.51% and 35.75% in the coefficient of variation in the fatigue life data of CF, CFM
and CFS mixes was observed as compared to the control concrete. Based upon the
reduced variability in the fatigue life distributions of FA based concrete, the CFS mix
performed the best among other FA based mixes.
4. The fatigue test data has been presented in the form of S-N diagrams to examine the
fatigue performance of control concrete and concrete containing cement additives in
terms of the two-million cycles fatigue strengths/endurance limits. The two-million
cycle fatigue strengths/endurance limits for all concretes were estimated in terms of
the maximum applied fatigue stress expressed as a percentage of the static flexural
strength (i.e. level S) as well as in terms of actually applied maximum fatigue stress
(fmax). The two-million cycles fatigue strengths/endurance limits for LP based
concretes i.e. CL, CLM and CLS mix are estimated as 71%, 73% and 74% of the
static flexural strength respectively. The same for control concrete was found to be
73% of its static flexural strength. Whereas, in terms of actually applied fatigue stress,
the two-million cycles fatigue strength/endurance limit for CL, CLM and CLS
concretes are found to be 4.8 MPa, 7.0 MPa and 7.2 MPa as compared to 6.0 MPa for
control concrete signifying a comparable fatigue performance for LP based concretes
except the CL mix.
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5. The estimated two-million cycles fatigue strengths/endurance limits are found to be
73%, 75% and 76% of the corresponding static flexural strength for CF, CFM and
CFS mixes respectively, compared to 73% for control concrete. Whereas, in terms of
actually applied fatigue stress, the two-million cycles fatigue strengths/endurance
limits for CF, CFM and CFS concretes are found to be 6.0 MPa, 6.6 MPa and 7.2
MPa as compared to 6.0 MPa for control concrete. These results signify a comparable
and slightly enhanced fatigue performance for FA based concretes as compared to
control concrete.
6. Based upon the results of present investigation, in general, it can be observed that the
concrete containing cement additives demonstrate better fatigue performance in terms
of reduction in the variability of their fatigue lives and improved or comparable two-
million cycles fatigue strengths/endurance limits. Through this investigation, the
benefits of using cement additives as partial replacement to PC in fibre reinforced
concretes in civil engineering applications wherein fatigue loading is predominant, is
established. Replacing 30% cement content with equal amount of cement additives in
concrete and yet achieving comparable or higher flexural fatigue performance favours
the use of concretes containing cement additives over the control concrete while
contributing towards the sustainable construction and economical challenges at
different levels.

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