High Strength Fibre Reinforced Concrete Static and fatigue behaviour in bending PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Technische Universiteit Delft, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof.dr.ir. J.T. Fokkema voorzitter van het College voor Promoties, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 28 juni 2007 om 10:00 uur door Eleni Sofia LAPPA Diplom-Ingenieurin, Technische Universiteit Darmstadt geboren te Darmstadt (Duitsland)
ii Dit proefschrift is goedgekeurd door de promotor: Prof.dr.ir. J.C. Walraven Samenstelling Promotiecommissie Rector Magnificus, Prof.dr.ir. J.C. Walraven, Prof.Dr.-Ing. J.D. Wörner, Prof.dr.ir. L.Taerwe, Prof.Dr.-Ing. H.S. Müller, Prof.ir. A.C.W.M. Vrouwenvelder, Dr.ir. C. van der Veen, Dr.ir. A.J. Bigaj-van Vliet, Prof.ir. A.Q.C. van der Horst voorzitter. Technische Universiteit Delft, promotor. Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Duitsland. Universiteit Gent, België. Universität Karslruhe, Duitsland. Technische Universiteit Delft. Technische Universiteit Delft. TNO Bouw en Ondergrond, Delft. Technische Universiteit Delft, reservelid. ISBN 978-90-9021935-6 Keywords: high strength concrete, ultra high strength concrete, UHPC, steel fibres, fatigue. Copyright 2007 by Eleni Lappa. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author E.S. Lappa, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Structural and Building Engineering, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands. This research was supported by the Technology Foundation STW, applied science division of NOW and the technology programme of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Printed in the Netherlands by Gildeprint, Enschede.
iii As you set out for Ithaka, hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Ithaka, C.P. Cavafy, 1911. Σα βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη, να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος, γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις. Ιθάκη, Κ.Π. Καβάφης, 1911. To my grandparents and Johnny Cash
219 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis was the result of a long struggle, a struggle with mainly me but also other external factors. That you can read this now means that the struggle finally reached its end. It was a long journey, but as the great poet C.P. Cavafy states in his work Ithaka, it is the journey that makes it worthwhile, not the destination itself. The journey would not have been possible without the contribution of a great number of people: First of all I have to thank my promotor, Joost Walraven, for giving me the opportunity to join his group and giving me this challenging research project. He was always able to lift my spirits while I was in despair with my data, and I am very grateful for that. I also acknowledge the opportunity to work in the fib task group on ultra high strength concrete and want to express my gratitude to all committee members for the interesting discussions and communications we had during the meetings. Without the supervision of Cor van der Veen I doubt I would have been able to finalise this thesis. The experiments of this study could not have been performed without the help and technical expertise of the laboratory personnel, as of Ron Mulder, Rene van der Baars and Ton Blom for the casting of the specimens and Albert Bosman, Ger Nagtegaal, Arjen van Rhijn, Fred Schilperoort, Michel van Aggelen, Kees van Beek and Edwin Schaars for conducting the experiments. This research could not have been completed without the financial support of the Technology foundation STW, and in that aspect I would like to thank Magriet Janszs and the members of the user s committee for the fruitful meetings. The materials needed for one of the mixtures were provided by Sika, and I would like to thank Isabelle Lallemant, Sandrine Chanut and Thierry Thibaut for their time. I am happy that this research contains collaboration with Karlsruhe University, and I hope this will be the beginning of an ongoing collaboration. Thanks to Jennifer Scheydt, dr. Gunter Herold and professor Harald Müller for their contribution. I would like to express my gratitude to the thesis committee members for their interest and valuable comments on my work. Especially professor Jan Woerner, who reserved time for my defence despite being one of the busiest persons I know. All my colleagues I met at the concrete structures group, and especially the PhD researchers, for technical (and not only) discussions, coffee breaks and drinks. Thanks Maya, Cees, Ye, Steffen, Petra, Eddie, Herbert (to you a special thanks for the help with the Dutch translations in this thesis), Sonja, Eelke, Roy, Ivan.
220 If I learned something during my time at university is that help is not something one can take for granted. Help was not always found where it was expected, and I am more than grateful for everybody who supported me, professionally and personally. In this aspect I would like to mention Rob Polder, Timo Nijland, Thomas Voigt, Surendra Shah, Nilufer Ozyurt, Marko Orgass. I was fortunate to participate in a number of technical conferences and courses, and meet other researchers with whom we extended concrete discussions into the small hours. Thanks to Yvette Klug, Holger Schneider, Kai Bunje, Essayas Gebreyouhannes, Miguel Azenha, Alberto Meda, Zila Rinaldi, Juergen Huber, Dirk Lowke, Petra Rucker, Alex Karakas, Joerg Jungwirth, to name a few. Delft and the Netherlands can be a very depressing place, especially in cold and grey winter months, if not for the sake of friends that I had the honour to meet: Nikolai, Åse, Sandra, Thorsten, Konca, Julia, Astrid, Alex, Luuk, Nico, Stephan, Ali, Mike, Helen, Alexis, Giampietro, Tamara, Lara, Simon, Dan, Silvia, Loic, Agnes, Betrand, Greg, Alet, Colossus, Emile, Eleonora, Jorge, Bea there were too many to mention in this list, thank you all. A special acknowledgement to Aletta who, in my opinion, wrote the perfect thesis in a standard I can never reach. Special thanks go to Nicolas, for his continuous support in the past years, and for enduring my moodswings. Thanks for all the patience especially during the final phase of my PhD, where I could not always be a social, cheerful person. My final thanks go to my family, especially my grandparents, my brother Paris, my uncle Bertold, my cousin Elly and most of all my parents who believed in me, where always there when I needed them, inspired me by making me follow their profession as engineers, and financed my civil engineering studies in Germany. Λένα Λάππα And if you find her poor, Ithaca won t have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you will have understood by then what these Ithacas mean. Ithaka, C.P. Cavafy, 1911. Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δεν σε γέλασε. Ετσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα, ήδη θα το κατάλαβες η Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν. Ιθάκη, Κ.Π. Καβάφης, 1911.