A Review on Fatigue Life Prediction of Plain Concrete

Abstract

Fatigue analysis of concrete structures is important since it is the limiting factor to service life of many infrastructures. The heterogeneity in concrete and its complex behaviour upon repetitive loading makes the fatigue life prediction of concrete erratic. This paper presents a review on the fatigue life prediction models of plain concrete. Review includes the deterministic and probabilistic approach for the prediction of fatigue life of concrete. It has been observed that deterministic approach depends on certain parameters and initial conditions and is not reliable for the prediction of fatigue life of concrete. So there is a demand for a more generalised model based on probabilistic approach which includes randomness in the fatigue failure of concrete. Recent studies show utilisation of artificial neural network, a computational tool based on this approach can be utilised to predict the fatigue behaviour of concrete.