Fatigue behavior of a multi-scale cement composite

To conceive structural elements with a cement composite and without any reinforcement except steel fibers is a very exciting and difficult challenge, which can change the building construction fields. To achieve this objective the Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées (LCPC) has developed a new cement composite, CEMTECmultiscale®, which is strain hardening in tension and has a very high uniaxial tensile strength, more than 20 MPa.The present paper is on an experimental research related to this composite fatigue behavior. The principal results obtained are the following:–A strong correlation exists between the initial static damage and the fatigue endurance limit.–Below a loading ratio R = 0.65 (ratio between the applied stress and the characteristic static stress), failure during bending fatigue tests never appears with CEMTECmultiscale® specimen.–An 8% gain is observed between the bending static behavior of the specimens being previously loaded in fatigue and those not being loaded in fatigue.