Integrated experimental measurement and computational analysis of relaxation behavior of cement and asphalt mortar

• Stress relaxation process of CA mortar under different initial strain levels was elaborated.
• Microscopic change in the process of stress relaxation was analyzed.
• The isochronous stress-strain relationship of CA mortar was obtained.
• An established model can effectively reflect the relationship between the stress relaxation and initial strain level.

The stress relaxation behavior of cement and asphalt mortar (CA mortar) under different initial strain levels was investigated. Results show that the stress relaxation of CA mortar can be divided into two parts: the attenuation stress relaxation stage and stable stress relaxation stage. With the increasing strain levels, the relaxed stress, stress relaxation rate, stress relaxation modulus and specific stress relaxation of CA mortar increase gradually. Under the same initial strain level, the relaxed stress of type I CA mortar and type II CA mortar are little different, whereas the specific stress relaxation of type I CA mortar is much greater than that of type II CA mortar. In the strain range of 0.32–0.80%, the isochronous stress-strain relation of type I CA mortar is linear. When the strain is greater than 0.80%, the isochronous stress-strain relationship concaves to the strain axis gradually. The isochronous stress-strain relationship of type II CA mortar show linear increase in the strain range of 0.47–1.42%. A stress relaxation model based on thermodynamic theory was established, which agrees very well with the experimental results.