Numerical Assessment of Fatigue Life for Concrete Column

Fatigue is progressive damage to the structure that is propelled due to decrement in the strength of material when subjected to cyclic loads. The present work deals with numerically assessing the life of concrete column under the influence of flexural fatigue load. Stress life analysis is considered for analysing the life and fracture parameters of two broadly classified 3-D concrete models without and with edge notch evolved at the centre of column length. Further the notch opening width-to-depth ratio (a/d) has been varied to understand the effect of crack propagation onto the fatigue life and stress intensities of the concrete models for different damaged states. A relation has been devised for estimating residual fatigue life of the concrete column in terms of the amplitude of sinusoidal cyclic load applied to column end. The results relate the variation of directional deformation, alternating stresses, stress intensity factors and equivalent von Mises stress for different damaged states with increasing induced loads. The outcome trend of the results further help both the future researchers and structural designers in understanding a systematic behavior of concrete fatigue damage with service loads that is helpful in prolonging the structural life either by taking the effective measures in designing the fatigue-resistant structures or in applying appropriate retrofitting procedure onto the critical sections of the member during its life tenure.