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Premature fracture during fatigue testing of reinforced-concrete steel bars

The problems faced during low-cycle fatigue tests of reinforced-concrete steel bars are presented and a specimen preparation method is described that will aid researchers on fatigue testing to obtain accurate test results and save on material and time. The results of mechanical tests on bars of various diameters under axial loading according to EN 10080 and EN 1421-3 are discussed and correlated with optical and scanning electron microscopy examination used to study the specimen fracture surfaces. Finite Element Modelling was employed to evaluate the effect of the newly introduced specimen preparation method on the problems faced during testing.