Proposal for the fatigue strength of concrete under cycles of compression

• The Dutch National Annex has to be corrected for concrete under compressive fatigue.
• New results for concrete compressive fatigue for high strength concrete are used.
• A database from the literature is compiled.
• Proposals for design and assessment are developed.

The Dutch National Annex to Eurocode 2 deviates from Eurocode 2 for the Wöhler curve for concrete in compression, but has a discontinuity in the S–N curve for 1 million load cycles. Therefore, a new expression for concrete subjected to repeated loading is sought, which should be valid, yet not overly conservative, for high strength concrete. A database of experiments on high strength concrete tested in compressive fatigue is developed, and used to derive new expressions. Two new formulas are proposed: (1) for the assessment of the fatigue strength of existing structures, and (2) a simplified method for design.