Effect of the water/cement ratio on concrete behavior under extreme loading

Abstract This study focuses on identifying concrete behavior under severe triaxial loadings (near field detonation or ballistic impacts). In order to reproduce high stress levels with well‐controlled loading paths, static tests have been carried out on concrete samples by mean of a very high‐capacity triaxial press (stress levels on the order of 1 GPa). It is a longstanding fact that the water/cement ratio (W/C), upon entering the concrete composition, is a major parameter affecting the porosity and strength of the cement matrix of hardened concrete. The objective of this article is to quantify the effect of this ratio on concrete behavior under conditions of high confinement. From the composition of a reference ‘ordinary’ concrete (i.e. W/C=0.6), two other concretes have been produced with W/C ratios equal to 0.4 and 0.8, respectively. This article presents experimental results and their analysis regarding the effect of water/cement ratio (W/C) on concrete behavior under high confinement. It shows that when placed under high confinement, concrete behaves like a granular stacking composed of concrete without any influence from the level of cement matrix strength. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.