Behaviour of Brittle Material in Multiple Loading Rates Under Uniaxial Compression

It is of great importance to investigate the effect of loading rate on the behaviour of brittle material such as concrete and rock because engineering structures are subjected to multiple loading conditions. Although material behaviour under single loading mode has been extensively studied, very limited research has been conducted to investigate the performance of brittle materials subjected to varying loading conditions. This paper presents an experimental study of the effects of single and multiple strain rates (ε) on cement mortar samples. The first set of samples was loaded at constant strain rates until failure. For the remaining samples, the first strain rate (0.005 mm/s) was applied to the sample up to a predetermined load, and then the second strain was initiated immediately by using the specially-designed gear system in place in the compression rig. As expected, the increase in strain rate showed an increase in peak strength of the sample with reduced ultimate strain. For multiple strain modes, it was observed that the highest peak strength occurred when the second strain was applied at 50 % of the peak strength of the first strain.