Fatigue Life Prediction for Reinforced-Concrete Low Domes

Abstract

The study of fatigue of thin reinforced-concrete shells presents a complex modelling approach. This work is devoted to the numerical evaluation of the fatigue life of reinforced-concrete domes, with the concrete class of C25/30. For the formulation of a fatigue criterion under a symmetrically alternating load, with a very high number of cycles (106), the approach begins with the study of mechanical behavior under monotonic loading, related to the fatigue response. The numerical correlation results of the studied cases, based on a conservative fatigue limit of concrete in compression, enables to estimate the service life of these structures, knowing only the response under monotonic loading. The correlation formula proposed in this article can therefore directly estimate the service life of reinforced concrete domes, based on the maximum stress resulting from monotonic loading.

Keywords

• reinforced-concrete domes
• long span
• monotonic loading
• mechanical behavior
• fatigue