Characterization by Means of Some Fracture Mechanics Parameters of the Concrete Pavement of the By-Pass Between Al and A2 Italian Highway

This work reports the results obtained with the three point bend tests (TPBT) carried out on beams made up of the concrete used for the construction of a by-pass highway and, by comparison, of medium (50 N/mm2) and high strength (98 N/mm 2) laboratory concretes. Typical parameters of fracture mechanics, such as stress inten-sity factor (KId, fracture energy (Gr), characteristic length(1.-ch), brittleness number (Se) etc., were calculated on the basisof the experimental data acquired with the TPBT.In particular the pavement concrete shows intermediate valuesof Kie and lower values of Gr with respect to those found inreference concretes. These results are related to its relative brit-tleness in the post-failures stage and to its low [mal deflection.