International Journal of Fatigue 31 (2009) 1309–1317

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International Journal of Fatigue

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Fatigue crack growth prediction in concrete slabs

Cristian Gaedicke a, Jeffery Roesler a,*, Surendra Shah b
a
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Newmark Laboratory, 205 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801-2352, USA
b
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, A134 Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3109, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A new method to predict crack growth and fatigue life of concrete slabs is presented based on similar
Received 15 November 2008 models for 2-D specimens. Four large-scale concrete slabs on ground subjected to three different stress
Received in revised form 3 February 2009 ranges have been tested to fatigue failure. Geometric correction factors to calculate the effective crack
Accepted 24 February 2009
length and stress intensity factor from the experimental fatigue compliance are derived based on 3-D
Available online 5 March 2009
finite element modeling. Crack length versus the number of cycles curves are constructed and fitted to
a modified logistic function, which enables for the calculation of the crack propagation rates and critical
Keywords:
crack lengths from the first and second derivative of the logistic function. Fatigue crack growth is sepa-
Concrete fatigue
Crack growth
rated into a decelerating and accelerating crack growth functions based on the initial crack length and the
Fracture mechanics applied stress intensity factor, respectively. The proposed method is able to predict the fatigue life of the
Slabs on ground tested slabs and the fatigue resistance of several independent slabs cast with the same geometry and
Concrete pavement material. The analysis of the tested slabs shows that load pulses with higher minimum loads generated
more fatigue damage as indicated by greater crack growth rates. The principles of this slab fatigue crack
growth procedure can now be extended to estimate the remaining life in uncracked or partially-cracked
concrete slabs on ground.
Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
The increasing traffic demands on concrete pavements and the
variation in available concrete material constituents pose unique
challenges in the structural design of concrete pavements and pre-
diction of the slab’s performance throughout its service life. Rigid
pavements structurally deteriorate, in the form of fatigue cracks,
over their service life, which can worsen with the introduction of
higher applied loads or changes in the boundary conditions, such
as loss of support or slab curling. Fatigue damage development is
especially critical in airfield pavements, with the introduction of
heavier aircraft and new generation gear configurations.
The traditional empirical method to predict the fatigue life of
concrete pavements requires calculating the critical tensile stress
in the slab and application of a fatigue equation. Fatigue equations,
also referred to as S–N curves [1–12], relate the applied stress ratio
(tensile bending stress divided by concrete flexural strength) to the
allowable repetitions until material failure. Miner’s Hypothesis has
been used for decades to linearly sum the fatigue damage of indi-
vidual events that occur at different stress levels such that the
damage at failure is less than or equal to 1.0. Beam fatigue
equations used to predict fatigue life of a slab [2,3,13,14] inher-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 217 265 0218; fax: +1 217 333 1924.
E-mail address: jroesler@illinois.edu (J. Roesler).
ently assume that the fatigue and fracture of the concrete material
is independent of the specimen size and boundary conditions.
Full-scale fatigue tests on concrete slabs [15–17] have con-
firmed that concrete slab fatigue cannot be accurately predicted
from beam fatigue curves. Slab fatigue curves always demonstrate
a greater resistance to cracking than that predicted by beam fati-
gue curves due to the change in specimen geometry and boundary
conditions [18]. The error in beam to slab fatigue prediction is also
dependent on the specific concrete materials utilized and, in par-
ticular linked to the concrete’s fracture properties. An additional
limitation in fatigue calculations is that Miner’s Hypothesis as-
sumes that the fatigue damage caused in previous cycles does
not affect the stress state in the slab for future fatigue cycles. In
the reality, cracks initiate in the slab under repeated loading and
propagate progressively until failure occurs. In summary, current
empirical methods for fatigue damage analysis do not account
for the specimen geometry or boundary condition effects, the pro-
gressive crack growth, and the material’s fracture resistance.
In the present paper, a fracture-based method to predict the fa-
tigue crack growth of small-scale specimens is extended to predict
the crack propagation in concrete slabs supported by a soil founda-
tion. This new slab fatigue model is then applied to four concrete
slabs tested in cyclic loading at the same load level but different
minimum loads. This methodology allows for the future prediction
of the remaining fatigue life of new and partially-cracked concrete
slabs for a variety of pavement applications.

0142-1123/$ - see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2009.02.040
1310 C. Gaedicke et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 31 (2009) 1309–1317

Nomenclature

a crack length Pimax ; P imin maximum and minimum vertical actuator load
a0 initial notch length, a0 = 0 for unnotched specimens Ci compliance for cycle i
ac critical crack length C nor
i normalized compliance for cycle i
c1, n1 calibration parameters for fatigue deceleration stage Nc critical number of cycles
c2, n2 calibration parameters for fatigue acceleration stage Ndecc number of cycles on deceleration stage
DKI cycle variation of mode I stress intensity factor Nacc number of cycles on acceleration stage
dimax ; dimin maximum and minimum vertical actuator displacement Nfailure number of cycles to slab failure

2. Background on fracture-based fatigue
Application of fracture mechanics offers a promising approach
to overcome several limitations associated with S–N curves and
Miner’s Hypothesis. Initial attempts to use linear elastic fracture
mechanics [19–22] and Paris Law [23,24] had limited success
due to their dependence on a significant level of calibration of
the Paris Law with experimental data. Significant calibration was
required since use of LEFM ignored the large fracture process zone
present in the concrete during the progressive failure and the
dependence of failure on the specimen size. Most researchers agree
that concrete shows a quasi-brittle failure response [25–29], and
fracture is not dependent on only one parameter (i.e. the critical
stress intensity factor).
The efforts to model the quasi-brittle nature of concrete in fati-
gue have been focused on developing equations that consider the
fracture process zone or into combining nonlinear fracture
mechanics and Paris Law. Sain and Kishen [30,31] modified
Slowick et al. [32] LEFM-based fatigue equation to account for con-
cretes tensile softening behavior on the fracture process zone.
Zhang et al. [33] proposed a semi-analytical model based on a cyc-
lic crack bridging law [34] to predict the fatigue cracking behavior
of plain and fiber reinforced (FRC) beams. Bazant and Xu [35] em-
ployed nonlinear elastic fracture mechanics (NLFM), i.e., the size
effect model [26], along with the Paris Law to take into account
the specimen size effect on the fatigue of concrete. Other research-
ers [36,37] have combined Paris–Erdogan Law and fractals to pre-
dict the fatigue life of plain and fibrous concrete beams. All of these
advanced approaches for concrete fatigue prediction employ mul-
tiple material parameters to better capture the effects of loading
and material variation on the specimen’s fatigue life.
Among the advanced methods which extend Paris Law into
NLFM, is Subramaniam et al. [38–41] 2-D fracture-based fatigue
method. This effective crack method, based on the two-parameter
fracture model [42], calculates the crack propagation in concrete
specimens based on experimental cyclic compliance (Fig. 1a),
which is defined as the ratio between displacement and applied
load per fatigue cycle. As is expected, the effective crack length in-
creases during the fatigue life of a specimen as is schematically
shown in Fig. 1b. The instantaneous crack propagation rate (Da/
DN) can be calculated as:
Da ðai  aj Þ
¼ ð1Þ
DN ði  jÞ
where ai and aj are the crack length for cycles i and j, respectively.
Fig. 1c shows that the crack propagation rate decreases until the
crack length reaches a minimum (ac) and then increases up to the
specimen failure. The crack propagation can be divided into the
two stages: deceleration stage and acceleration stage. Subramaniam
et al. [41] concluded that the deceleration stage could be described
by the following equation:
Da
¼ C 1 ða  a0 Þn1 for a < ac ð2Þ
DN
where a is the crack length, a0 is the initial notch, C1 and n1 are cal-
ibration constants for a given structural geometry, boundary condi-
tions, and material. The critical crack length (ac), which is defined by
the inflection point on the crack length versus number of fatigue cy-
cles curve (Fig. 1b), was also found to be equal to about the crack
length at the peak monotonic load level [41]. The crack growth
characteristics in the acceleration stage are governed by the change
in stress intensity factor (DKI) during each load cycle, which is
quantitatively defined by Paris Law [23,24]:
Da
¼ C 2 ð DK I Þ n 2 for a  ac ð3Þ
DN
where DKI is the stress intensity factor range for each fatigue cycle;
C2 and n2 are calibration constants related to the structural geome-
try, boundary conditions, and material type. The main advantage of
this method over the LEFM and empirical fatigue approach is that it

Log(Δa/ΔN)
Ci a
Δa
afailure =C 1( a − a0 ) n1
ΔN
Deceleration
Deceleration
Crack
ac propagation
rate Δa
=C 2( ΔKI ) n 2
Acceleration ΔN
a0 Acceleration

N N a0 a\c afailure a
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 1. Schematic of (a) compliance (Ci) measured from fatigue tests; (b) fatigue crack length (a) versus number of cycles (N); (c) crack growth rate versus crack length.

uses an effective crack approach based on the measured compliance
to determine the crack growth in the slab versus number of applied
fatigue cycles. The derived model can then be used to predict the
number of cycles (N) needed to reach any given crack length (a),
by simply integrating Eqs. (2) and (3):
Z ac Z a
1 1
N¼ da þ
a0 C 1 ða  a0 Þn1 ac C 2 ðDK I Þn2
In this paper, this 2-D fracture-based method proposed by Subr-
amaniam et al. [38–41] is extended to predict the fatigue life of
concrete slabs.
3. Slab fatigue life prediction method
The method herein proposed to predict fatigue life of concrete
slabs uses similar concepts to the method by Subramaniam et al.
[38–41] with specific additions needed for slabs on ground. The
proposed method links the measured slab compliance from the
slab fatigue tests to the required fatigue parameters (C1, n1, C2,
n2, ac) shown in Eq. (4). First of all, crack length and stress intensity
factor for a given fatigue cycle are calculated from the experimen-
tal slab compliance. The theoretical relationships are derived from
3-D finite element models specifically developed for this slab
geometry, loading configuration, and boundary condition. The next
step is to determine the crack propagation rate (Da/DN) for each
cycle and obtain the critical crack length. Finally, the deceleration
parameters (C1, n1) are calculated from Eq. (2) using the crack
propagation rate and crack length data, for a < ac. Likewise, the
acceleration parameters (C2, n2) are computed from Eq. (3) using
the crack propagation rate and crack length data, for a P ac.
4. Experimental program and results
4.1. Experimental program and test setup
An experimental program has been developed to verify the pro-
posed fracture-based fatigue method on large-scale slabs subjected
to several loading conditions. Three different load pulses, which
simulate the applied load of a triple dual tandem aircraft gear have
been used, as is shown in Fig. 2. The pulse duration is one second
long with three distinct 90 kN peak loads. The maximum stress ra-
tio is the same for all slabs, but the minimum applied load between
120
100
Pmax
80
Load (kN)
P min
60
40
20
P unloaded
0
0 125 250 375 500
Time (ms)
Fig. 2. Shape of the load pulse for T-01: R-value = 0.1, T-04: R-value = 0.4, and T-07/
T-07R: R-value = 0.7.
C. Gaedicke et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 31 (2009) 1309–1317 1311
da ð4Þ
Fig. 3. Fatigue test setup for slabs on ground.
peaks is different for each load pulse (rmin/rmax = 0.1, 0.4, and 0.7).
The slab specimens are identified based on the applied stress range
as T-01, T-04, T-07, respectively. For model verification, an addi-
tional slab identified as T-07R was also tested with a stress ratio
equal to rmin/rmax = 0.7.
Each concrete slab is 2000 mm  2000 mm  150 mm thick.
The slab is placed on the top of a 200 mm soil layer contained in
a test frame, as is shown in Fig. 3. The load is applied through a
445 kN hydraulic actuator at the mid-slab edge. The actuator oper-
ated under a precision servo-valve control in a closed-loop servo
hydraulic system powered by a 30 gpm hydraulic power supply
and regulated by a service manifold. The slab vertical displace-
ments are measured through strategically-placed LVDT’s. The soil
layer is a low-plasticity clay with a 5% California Bearing Ratio
(CBR) at 17% moisture content, and a correlated modulus of sub-
grade reaction equal to 17.7 MPa/m.
The concrete mixture design selected is based on mixtures com-
monly used at regional airports in Illinois. The coarse aggregate is a
crushed limestone with a 19 mm nominal maximum size, whereas
the fine aggregate is natural sand. The mixture proportions are
1085 kg/m3 of coarse aggregate and 707 kg/m3 of fine aggregate.
The mixture has a water to cementitious ratio equal to 0.40 using
290 kg/m3 of Type I cement, 77 kg/m3 of Type C fly ash and 145 kg/
T-01 m3 of water. A water reducing admixture is used to obtain a target
T-04 slump equal to 100 mm. The average flexural strength at the slab
T-07, T-07R testing age (120 days) is 5.4 MPa. The modulus of elasticity and
Poisson’s ratio are equal to 24 GPa and 0.15, respectively.
4.2. Experimental fatigue test results
The applied load and displacement history for each fatigue cycle
is collected during the fatigue tests, as is schematically depicted in
Fig. 4. The individual slab’s compliance is calculated for every fati-
gue cycle, in order to determine the effective crack length and
crack length change per loading cycle. As is shown in Fig. 4 and
Eq. (5) below, the compliance is calculated for each loading cycle
(C1, . . ., Ci, . . ., Cfailure) as the ratio between the difference of the max-
imum (dimax) and minimum (dimin ) vertical displacement and the
625 750 875 1000 difference between the maximum (P imax ) and minimum (Pimin ) ap-
plied load:
C i ¼ ðdimax  dimin Þ=ðPimax  Pimin Þ ð5Þ
1312 C. Gaedicke et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 31 (2009) 1309–1317

P 5. Implementation of fracture-based fatigue method for

concrete slabs
Pimax
The proposed method has required development of equations,
Cycle i by 3-D finite element analysis, to relate normalized compliance
to the effective crack length and applied stress intensity factor
for the given slab geometry, loading configuration, and boundary
conditions. The method also implements a logistic function to
translate the crack length into a continuous function in order to
simplify the fatigue crack growth analysis.

δ max
i
− δ min
i
5.1. Crack length and stress intensity factor analysis
i Ci =
P min i
Pmax − Pmin
i

5.1.1. Fatigue crack length

δimin δimax
Fig. 4. Schematic of a fatigue cycle with its maximum and minimum load and
displacement for compliance calculation.
Due to inherent variations in the slab support and thickness be-
tween different tests, the calculated compliances are normalized
using the initial compliance (C1):
C nor ¼ C i =C 1
i
The normalized compliance against the number of loading cy-
cles is then used to theoretically evaluate the crack length at any
loading cycle.
Fig. 5 shows the relationship between the normalized compli-
ance and the total number of loading cycles up to failure for each
tested slab. The fatigue life for slabs T-01, T-04, T-07 and T-07R
is equal to 61.84  103, 26.24  103, 4.384  103, and 5.44  103
cycles, respectively. As was expected, specimens that show higher
compliance growth rates (T-07 and T-07R) have a shorter fatigue
life. For each slab, the plots also show a first stage with a decreas-
ing compliance rate followed by a second stage with an increasing
compliance rate and then sudden failure. This compliance behavior
is similar to the results determined by Subramaniam et al. [41] for
concrete beam specimens. Slabs T-07 and T-07R, subjected to the
same load pulse with a stress range equal to 0.7, have demon-
strated a shorter fatigue life compared to slab T-01 with a stress
range equal to 0.1, which was unexpected based on previous beam
fatigue results published by Tepfers [3–5].
1.3
T-07R
T-01
1.25
Normalized Compliance
A set of finite element models have been developed in ABAQUSÒ
δ to derive the relationship between the slab’s compliance and the
respective crack length, and also to predict the resultant stress
intensity factor. Such relationships (crack length against compli-
ance and crack length against stress intensity factor) have been
determined by varying the initial crack length in the slab between
0 and 1980 mm, to represent different crack propagation stages.
The models assume that crack propagation in the slab is idealized
by a full-depth crack starting from the loaded edge of the slab and
uniformly propagating across the slab. The assumption that the
ð6Þ through-crack grows along the symmetry line of the concrete slab
is generally consistent with the actual crack path observed in the
experiments. The proposed models use symmetry along the direc-
tion of crack propagation to reduce the overall size of the models,
as is shown in Fig. 6a. The example shown in this figure represents
the model for the concrete slab with a fatigue crack that has prop-
agated 600 mm. The tested concrete modulus of elasticity and
Poisson’s ratio, and the soil modulus of subgrade reaction have
been used as material properties in the model.
The finite element mesh employs three-dimensional 20-node
quadratic reduced integration brick elements (C3D20R) with an
average element size of 25  25  6 mm. A 200 mm semi-circular
radial mesh is built around the crack tip to improve the stress
intensity factor computation, with 40 and 34 elements in the angu-
lar and radial direction, respectively, as is shown in Fig. 6b. A
refinement factor (called Bias Ratio in ABAQUS) equal to 2.0 is used
in the radial direction.
The compliance in the FEM slab models is computed as the ratio
between the vertical displacement (d) and the total load. The ver-
tical displacement on the models is calculated at the center of the
200  200 mm plate in the experiments, to ensure consistency be-
tween measured and calculated responses. The compliance is cal-
culated for each crack length and then normalized with respect
to the unnotched slab’s compliance, i.e., for a = 0. The normalized
compliance at a crack length equal to zero is then equal to 1.0.
Fig. 7a plots the theoretically-derived relationship between
crack length and the normalized compliance. A predictive equation

T-07 that relates the normalized compliance to the crack length can
1.2
then be developed so that the effective crack length of the experi-
mental slabs can be calculated. The least squared approximation
1.15 between crack length and normalized compliance for this slab con-
figuration is the following:

1.1  4  3  2
a ¼ 52; 262 C nor  282; 952 C nor þ 561; 486 C nor
T-04  nor 
 480; 420 C þ 14; 9661 ð7Þ
1.05

where a is the crack length in millimeters and Cnor is the normalized

1 compliance. In the theoretical model, the Cnor is approximately 1.5
0 10.000 20.000 30.000 40.000 50.000 60.000
Number of Cycles
for a fully propagated crack (i.e., a = 2000 mm) and therefore for
measured Cnor > 1.5 the crack length is automatically set to
Fig. 5. Normalized compliance versus number of fatigue cycles for slabs. 2000 mm. The effective crack length for each slab at any number
 C. Gaedicke et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 31 (2009) 1309–1317 1313

Fig. 6. (a) Example of finite element model a slab with a crack length of a = 600 mm and (b) mesh around crack tip.

-3
x 10
(a) 2000 (b) 6
Normalized Stress Intensity Factor, K/P (mm-3/2)

1800 5.5

1600 5

4.5
1400
Crack Length (mm)

4
1200
3.5
1000
3
800
2.5
600
2
400
1.5

200 1

0 0.5
1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.2 1.25 1.3 1.35 1.4 1.45 1.5 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Normalized Compliance Crack Length (mm)

Fig. 7. Finite element analysis relation between (a) normalized slab compliance and crack length and (b) crack length and normalized stress intensity factor (KI).

of cycles is calculated with Eq. (7) using the normalized slab com-
pliances shown in Fig. 5.
The diagram of crack length against number of cycles is pre-
sented in Fig. 8 for the four slabs. Slabs T-07 and T-07R, which have
significantly lower fatigue lives, are unloaded the least (i.e., to
70 kN) with respect to the other two slabs. In contrast, slab T-04
is subjected to a minimum load equal to 40 kN and slab T-01 to
a minimum load equal to 9 kN. Slabs T-01 and T-04 have a signif-
icant plateau section (with a small crack growth rate) compared to
slabs T-07 and T-07R.
The crack propagation rate for T-07 and T-07R specimens is
much higher, suggesting that the stress range affects the fatigue
life of the soil-supported concrete slabs differently from a simply
supported beam. A loading pulse that keeps higher minimum
stresses on the slab-soil system for a longer period of time, such
as in T-07 and T-07R, generates more plastic deformation in the
soil which subsequently increases the stress state in the concrete
slabs. Fig. 8 also shows that the effective crack length at which
unstable crack propagation occurs is different for each specimen,
i.e. 1450, 620, 920, and 1420 mm, for T-01, T-04, T-07, and
T-07R, respectively.
5.1.2. Stress intensity factor (DKI)
The acceleration stage of fatigue crack growth depends on the
variation of the stress intensity factor (DKI). A relationship be-
tween KI for different crack lengths (a) and applied loads (P) is
1314 C. Gaedicke et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 31 (2009) 1309–1317

2000 is linear elastic and does not soften or yield under higher stress
states. The application of this equation is valid since Eq. (8) is only
1800
used in the fatigue acceleration stage which starts for crack lengths
T-07R greater than 550 mm.
1600
Eq. (8) is then modified to calculate the change in stress inten-
1400 sity factor, DKI, from the change in the applied load during each fa-
Crack Length (mm)

1200
T-07
1000
800
600
400
T-04
200
0
0 10,000 20,000
Number of Cycles
Fig. 8. Crack length versus loading cycles on slab specimens.
therefore needed. The applied stress intensity factor (KI) is calcu-
lated from the finite element model using contour integrals around
the crack tip to determine the J-Integral. Collapsed C3D20R brick
elements with quarter point nodes are used around the crack tip
to ensure the contour integral convergence. The stress intensity
factor is calculated for each crack length as the average of the
stress intensity factors for the 3rd, 4th and 5th contour. The varia-
tion between these three contours is on average less than 0.1
percent.
The relationship between the stress intensity factor and crack
length derived from the FEM models is shown in Fig. 7b. The equa-
tion that relates the normalized (KI/P) Mode I stress intensity factor
(mm3/2) to a given crack length (a, in mm) is the following:
4:98771  10
K I =P ¼ 1:27894  103 þ
ð2000  aÞ
This equation was specifically derived based on the FEM model re-
sults in the range of 400 < a < 2000 mm, as it is meant to be used for
the acceleration stage which starts for crack lengths greater than
550 mm. The stress intensity factor decreases slightly with an in-
crease in crack length for initial crack lengths less than 400 mm
due to the geometry of the slab and the assumption that the soil
T-01
tigue cycle and the effective crack length (a) (mm):
" #
4:98771  102
DK I ¼ wðPmax  P min Þ 1:27894  103 þ ð9Þ
ð2000  aÞ0:788467
where Pmax  Pmin is the difference between the maximum and
minimum load p (N)
ffiffiffiffiffiffiduring each fatigue cycle, and w is a conversion
factor, i.e. w ¼ 10=100 to express DKI in MPa m1/2.
5.2. Fatigue data filtering
30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 A significant challenge in the application of the fracture-based
fatigue model for slabs is to explain the inherent variability of
the experimental slab fatigue results. As can be observed in
Fig. 8, the crack length plots show cyclic variation, which is typical
in fatigue tests. The calculation of the crack propagation rates (Da/
DN) using Eq. (1) would require choosing certain crack lengths and
loading cycle numbers (i.e. ai, aj, i, j). As a result, the calculated
propagation rate would depend on how cycles i and j are chosen,
which means that Da/DN calculated using small cycle increments
would be different to Da/DN computed from larger cycle intervals.
Hence, the method would not be consistent which would limit the
applicability of the fracture-based fatigue method to concrete
slabs. In order to overcome this limitation, an intermediate step
is added to fit the calculated crack lengths with a smooth continu-
ous function. The following logistic function [43] relating the crack
length and loading cycles is chosen to improve the stability of the
crack growth rate calculations:
 
bN
2 a ¼ s ln ð10Þ
Nm2  bm1
0:788467
ð8Þ
where a is the crack length, N is the loading cycle number, b, m1, m2
and s are experimental calibration constants. As is demonstrated in
Fig. 9a for slab T-01, the effective crack length versus number of
loading cycles can be accurately represented using the above func-
tion. The diagrams of crack length versus number of loading cycles
for all slabs are shown in Fig. 9b based on the predictive equation.
The continuous Eq. (10) for crack length versus fatigue cycles

2000 2000
(a) (b) T-01
1800 1800 T-04
T- 07R T-07
1600 1600
T-07R

1400 1400
Crack Length (mm)

T- 01
Crack Length (mm)

T- 07
1200 1200
a
c
1000 1000

800 800

600
T- 04
Deceleration Acceleration 600

400 400
Experimental - T-01
200 Predicted by S-Curve 200
Nc
0 0
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000
Number of Cycles Number of Cycles

Fig. 9. (a) Raw and filtered crack length versus number of cycles curves for slab T-01; (b) idealized crack length versus loading cycles for all slab specimens.
 C. Gaedicke et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 31 (2009) 1309–1317 1315

enables the calculation of the crack propagation rate as the first Table 1
derivative of Eq. (10): Slab fatigue data, calibrated parameters, and fracture-based fatigue model
predictions.
da bðm2  m1 Þs
¼ ð11Þ T-01 T-04 T-07 T-07R
dN ðb  NÞðbm1  Nm2 Þ
Measured fatigue values
The use of Eq. (11) instead of Eq. (1) standardizes the process and ac (mm) 1084 557 790 1225
eliminates user subjectivity in choosing discrete crack lengths and Nc = Ndecc 31,682 13,191 2341 2795
Nacc 30,158 13,049 2043 2645
cycle numbers. Nfailure 61,840 26,240 4384 5440
Fig. 10 shows the relationship between the crack growth rate Nc/Nfailure 0.512 0.503 0.534 0.514
(logarithmic scale) and the crack length. In this figure, the mini- Fatigue parametersa
mum crack growth rate (shown as a negative value) represents c1 1.28E+18 3.37E+14 2.29E+12 5.61E+14
the critical crack length (ac), which is the transition between decel- n1 6.740 6.110 4.688 5.150
erating and accelerating crack growth. As shown in Fig. 10, speci- c2 1.68E27 1.57E101 1.71E49 3.29E12
n2 40.605 173.147 81.487 17.122
mens T-01 and T-04 have lower crack propagation rates (given
by lower negative values) compared to T-07 and T-07R, which is Predicted fatigue values
Nc = Ndecc 31,229 13,914 2325 2851
consistent with their longer fatigue life. The critical crack length
Nacc 30,053 15,800 2277 3081
(ac) and critical number of loading cycles (Nc) are obtained by set- Nfailure 61,283 29,714 4601 5931
ting the second derivative of Eq. (10) to zero. The equation for the Nc/Nfailure 0.510 0.468 0.505 0.481
critical crack length is: Prediction error (%) 0.9 13.2 5.0 9.0
ac ¼ s lnð1=m2 Þ ð12Þ a
Fatigue parameters are presented in for a in mm and DKI in MPa m0.5.

and critical number of loading cycles is given by:

behavior, as specimens that are subjected to higher minimum load
Nc ¼ bðm1 þ m2 Þ=2m2 ð13Þ levels show shorter fatigue life.
The critical crack length values are shown in Table 1. The critical
number of loading cycles (Nc) ranges between 49 and 52 percent of 5.3. Slab fatigue model calibration
the number (Nfailure) of loading cycles up to failure for each slab.
The critical crack length is different for each slab and does not The deceleration stage is defined by a reduction in the crack
show a direct trend with fatigue life of the slabs, which could be propagation rate until the critical crack length (ac) is reached. Eq.
a result of the general assumption on how the crack is idealized (2) can be easily calibrated using a logarithmic transformation
to propagate across the slab and the fact the support condition can- and then applying linear regression (see Fig. 11a). Fatigue coeffi-
not be guaranteed to be identical for all slab tests. cients C1 and n1 are obtained from the following linear regression:
Subramaniam et al. [41] found that three-point-bending beam  
da
specimens made with the same geometry and the same concrete log ¼ logðC 1 Þ þ n1 logða  a0 Þ ð14Þ
dN
material had approximately the same critical crack length. They
discovered that the critical crack length (ac) in fatigue could be and coefficients C1 and n1 are presented in Table 1.
approximated by the equivalent crack length at the peak load in The acceleration stage is defined by an increase in the crack
a monotonic test. The present paper shows that the critical crack propagation rate for crack lengths larger than the critical crack
length varies significantly which is likely due to the boundary con- length, and is defined by Eq. (3). As is shown in Fig. 11b, the rela-
dition change (i.e. specimen soil support) and the assumption of tionship between log (da/dN) and log (DKI) is linear, and therefore,
the crack geometry (uniform propagation of a through-crack). In Eq. (3) can be expressed as:
the slab-on-ground fatigue tests, the minimum load level is not  
da
constant for all specimens, and this minimum load level affects log ¼ logðC 2 Þ þ n2 logðDK I Þ ð15Þ
dN
the support conditions. This difference affects the overall fatigue
where DKI is the variation of the stress intensity factor
K PI max  K PI min for each fatigue cycle, calculated using Eq. (9). The
0.5 calibrated coefficients C2 and n2 are shown in Table 1. Several of
such C2 coefficients are extremely small, which physically represent
the crack length variation with load cycles as the stress intensity
0 factor variation approaches zero.

5.4. Slab fatigue model verification

-0.5
T- 07
Log(da/dn)

T- 07R The accuracy of the previously calibrated parameters can be

-1 checked by calculating the total fatigue life of the specimens using
Eq. (4) and comparing it with the experimental results. The total
fatigue life (Nf) of the slab specimen is calculated by integrating
-1.5 the deceleration Eq. (2) over the crack length between a0 and ac,
T- 04 T-01 and the acceleration Eq. (9) over the crack length starting from ac
T- 01 T-04 until its failure crack length af (af = 2000 mm). A small a0 value
-2
T-07 greater than zero (i.e., a0 = 0.01) is used in Eq. (4) for slabs with
T-07R
no notch to avoid a singularity in the deceleration integral. DKI
-2.5 must be expressed in terms of the crack length (a) and the maxi-
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
mum and minimum fatigue loads (Pmax, Pmin) using Eq. (9) in the
Crack Length (mm)
acceleration integral. The integrals to calculate the fatigue life of
Fig. 10. Crack propagation rate (log) versus crack length for all slab specimens. the slabs are:
1316 C. Gaedicke et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 31 (2009) 1309–1317

(a) 1 (b) 1
T-01 T-01
T-04 T-04
0.5 0.5

Crack Propagation Rate, Log(da/dn)

Crack Propagation Rate, Log(da/dn)

T-07 T-07
T-07R T-07R
0 0
T- 07
T- 07R
T- 07
-0.5 -0.5
T- 07R

-1 -1

-1.5 -1.5
T- 01 T- 04 T- 01
T- 04
-2 -2

-2.5 -2.5
2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 3 3.1 0.55 0.575 0.6 0.625 0.65 0.675
Log Crack Length, (log(mm)) Log Δ(KI), (log(MPa m )) 0.5

Fig. 11. (a) Calibration of the Fatigue deceleration coefficients by linear regression; (b) calibration of the fatigue acceleration coefficients by linear regression.

Z ac
1 traditional S–N curve approaches for slab fatigue predictions such
N ¼ Ndecc þ Nacc ¼ da
C 1 ða  a0 Þn1a0 as calculation of the progressive cracking in the slab, use of fracture
Z a mechanics to explain crack growth, and the ability to analyze the
1
þ n h ion2 da effects of partial depth cracks. The new method is able to predict
4:98771102
ac C 2 wðPmax  Pmin Þ 1:27894  103 þ ð2000aÞ 0:788467 the fatigue life of large-scale concrete slabs on ground subjected
ð16Þ to different fatigue load pulses. The validity of the slab fatigue
model has been assessed by examining two independent slab fati-
These integrals can be evaluated numerically using Mathemat- gue tests with the same geometry, concrete material, and load
icaÒ, and the predicted fatigue cycles for slabs T-01, T-04, T-07 and pulse shape.
T-07R, are compared to the actual fatigue life of the specimens. The Several unique features of the proposed slab fatigue model are
predicted fatigue obtained using calibrated parameters for each the calculation of the effective elastic crack length against the
specimen (c1, n1, c2, n2, ac) is very similar to the actual fatigue life number of fatigue cycles from the measured slab compliance data
for each specimen. The low prediction errors shown in Table 1 con- and the application of a calibrated logistic function to calculate the
firm the validity of the proposed method along with the accuracy crack propagation rate and critical crack length resulting in a more
of the experimental calibration. accurate determination of the deceleration and acceleration phases
The proposed model is also used to explain the slab fatigue test of fatigue crack growth. The analysis shows that load pulses that
results (similar to T-01) conducted by Roesler et al. [16,17] by keep a higher minimum load between peak loads tend to generate
employing specimens with similar geometry and concrete materi- larger crack growth rates in slabs. Higher sustained loads for a
als that never failed during cyclic loading. The first slab, identified longer period of time increase the stress state in the soil (stress
as T5 in Ref. [17], was subjected to the same pulse shape as T-01, softening behavior), prevent recovery of the soil, and finally induce
but with maximum and minimum applied loads equal to 78.73 higher stresses in the concrete slab. This new model has the poten-
and 6.67 kN, respectively. This slab specimen did not fail in fatigue tial to be applied to determine the remaining life of uncracked or
even after 594.7  103 cycles, which is consistent with the model partially-cracked concrete pavement slabs.
that predicted 1.39  107 to failure under those load conditions.
For a second slab subjected to maximum and minimum applied
Acknowledgements
loads equal to 44.9 and 4.4 kN (see Ref. [16]), the model predicted
3.07  1010 loading cycles up to failure. This prediction was consis-
This paper was prepared from a study conducted in the Center
tent with the fatigue test on this slab, which resisted 610.6  103
of Excellence for Airport Technology (CEAT), funded in part by the
loading cycles without fatigue failure. These independent confir-
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The CEAT is maintained at
mations show that the model can predict the conditions under
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with partners at
which concrete slabs show high fatigue endurance limit. Fatigue
Northwestern University. The contents of this paper reflect the
tests with different slab geometries, soil properties, initial notch
views of the authors who are responsible for the facts and accuracy
lengths, or applied load location would require different geometric
of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily re-
factors to calculate the crack length versus compliance and stress
flect the official views and policies of the FAA. This paper does
intensity factor given a similar calibration process was employed.
not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.
Extrapolation of this particular slab fatigue model to other slab
geometries and material properties can result in predictive errors.
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