Fatigue crack propagation at concrete–concrete bi-material interfaces

• Experimental study on beams with different interfaces under fatigue loading.
• Interfacial behavior under fatigue explained through acoustic emission.
• Fatigue crack propagation model for interfaces is derived from dimensional analysis.
• Effect of elastic moduli mismatch on fatigue crack growth explained.
• Fatigue behavior of cementitious interfaces not available in the literature.

This paper presents experimental and analytical studies on fatigue crack propagation in concrete–concrete cold jointed interface specimens. Beams of different sizes having jointed interface between two concretes with different elastic properties are tested under fatigue loading. The acoustic emission technique is used for monitoring the fatigue crack growth. It is observed that the interface having a higher moduli mismatch tends to behave in a brittle manner. The CMOD compliances at different loading cycles are measured and the equivalent crack lengths are determined from a finite element analysis. An analytical model for crack growth rate is proposed using the concepts of the dimensional analysis.