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Despite of intensive research on concrete fatigue, the transfer of fatigue characteristics determined at the material level to the structural level remains a challenging issue. In this paper, the propagation of fatigue‐induced damage through the concrete structure is analyzed using a microplane fatigue model for concrete recently developed by the authors. To this end, our recent experimental study in which the fatigue propagation was monitored at the structural level represented by prestressed concrete beams is used to derive a general interpretation of the stress redistribution process using of the developed model. The numerical studies show that the developed microplane fatigue model provides a powerful computational tool for in‐depth analysis of the correspondence between the fatigue behavior at the material and structural scales in a wide range of load configurations. In addition, the thermodynamically based constitutive model allows for the quantification of the energy dissipation during the process, revealing the possibility of deriving material‐specific energetic characteristics that can further help to make the predictions of fatigue life more accurate. Highlights: Structural experiments validate the constitutive fatigue hypothesis.Damage‐induced energy dissipation is an objective value for fatigue characterization.Insights into the fatigue life extension of concrete at the structural level are provided.Structural stress redistribution induces variable load amplitudes at local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of a simple engineering rule for predicting the fatigue failure of concrete has been pursued over the past decades. An energetic approach to the matter seems to be an attractive option that many researchers have embraced. In the present work, the authors attempt to contribute to the establishment of such a rule. In particular, the energy dissipation of confined concrete subjected to shear cyclic loading is studied and quantified. For this purpose, a microplane fatigue model recently introduced by the authors, referred to as MS1, is used. It aims to capture the fundamental inelastic mechanisms driving the tri‐axial stress redistribution within a material zone during the fatigue damage process in concrete. To this end, the fatigue damage evolution is linked to a measure of cumulative inelastic shear strain at the microplane level, reflecting the accumulation of fatigue damage due to internal shear/sliding between aggregates at subcritical pulsating load levels. To isolate the dissipative mechanism mentioned above, test configurations with dominant shear stress seem to be more appropriate. In the present work, a punch‐through shear test (PTST) FE model is used to induce shear‐dominated stresses and strains along the ligament of a specimen. Numerical studies are first presented to evaluate the behavior and energy dissipation at the elemental interface level. The interface is introduced in the MS1 microplane material model, which is capable of reproducing the concrete behavior under monotonic, cyclic, and fatigue loading with consistent set of material parameters. Quantification of the energy dissipation for each introduced dissipative mechanism is performed at each microplane and integrated via a well‐established homogenization scheme to evaluate the macroscopic energy dissipation. Later, an analysis of the energy dissipation of the PTST process zone is performed for cyclic loading under two different subcritical cyclic load amplitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fatigue of concrete has been the subject of research for many years, and yet, there are still open questions. In particular, the fatigue‐induced damage evolution accompanied by a stress redistribution process propagating through the concrete structure is still not fully understood. So far, there are only few experimental studies addressing the fatigue propagation through a material zone occurring, for example, in beams with a pulsating, nonuniform stress profile. To investigate the influence of such stress configurations on the material and structural degradation process, a measuring concept has been developed combining digital image correlation, fiber optic sensors, and conventional strain gauges. The presented experiments visualize the propagating fatigue degradation in the compression zone of prestressed concrete beams subjected to fatigue loading. Based on the developed measurement concept, the quantitative foundation for a comprehensive validation of design rules and material models accounting for concrete fatigue can be significantly extended. Highlights: Design of a test setup for the analysis of compressive fatigue propagation in concreteEvaluation of a coordinated monitoring concept combining various measurement techniquesVisualization of the propagating fatigue degradation of prestressed concrete beams [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]