No abstract

We investigate the tensile behaviour of two fibre reinforced repair mortars by two direct tensile testing configurations. In the first configuration, a ball-joint loading fixture is developed such that an ideal hinge boundary condition is guaranteed. This technique allows to access to mechanical properties of the material such as the modulus of elasticity and the failure stress. However, it does not allow studying the post-peak behaviour of the materials. A new post-peak tension test is adopted using a metallic bar within the fibre reinforced repair mortar hollow sample. Bar constitute a crack stabiliser by providing extra stiffness. It can minimise or eliminate the strain energy release from the testing machine, so that a stable post-peak response can be obtained. The test method uses a digitally controlled closed-loop testing electromechanical machine and three control channels: crosshead displacement and two extensometers mounted on the test sample. A complete stress-strain curve is obtained by this method if adaptive control and test setup are chosen appropriately.KEY WORDS: adaptive control, fibre reinforced mortar, post-peak tensile test, tensile test Ó