Conditioning-induced elastic nonlinearity in hysteretic media

Abstract The definition and measurement of the nonlinear elastic properties of a sample is of great importance for a large number of applications, including characterization of material performances and damage detection. However, such measurements are often influenced by spurious effects due to a co...
Ausführliche Beschreibung

Abstract The definition and measurement of the nonlinear elastic properties of a sample is of great importance for a large number of applications, including characterization of material performances and damage detection. However, such measurements are often influenced by spurious effects due to a combination of nonlinearity and nonequilibrium phenomena. We will present experimental data to show how nonlinearity due to small cracks in concrete samples increases as a consequence of conditioning, i.e., after having perturbed them with a constant amplitude excitation. In addition, our experimental data highlight “memory effects,” i.e., they show that when the excitation is removed, the elastic modulus does not return instantaneously to the initial value. Ausführliche Beschreibung