PSI - Issue 62

A. Lupoi et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 62 (2024) 963–971 A. Lupoi, F. Romano / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2024) 000–000

968

6

• 8 to monitor the supports movement with respect to the laboratory ground floor; • 2 to check the pre-existing crack, positioned 3 m and 6 m from the mid-span section.

Fig. 5 displays the location of the installed displacement transducers on the two lateral views of the girder.

Fig. 5. Configuration of the installed displacement transducers on the two girder views (EUCENTRE, 2023).

Table 1 reports the features of the experimental tests sequence. Five loading cycles were carried out on the girder sample: first three cycles as force-controlled, the last two as displacement-controlled. Each cycle combines a single loading phase until the test target force or displacement is achieved, and a subsequent unloading phase; the loading and unloading phases have the same time duration.

Table 1. Features of the experimental tests sequence.

Target force/displacement (total of the two actuators)

Loading or unloading time duration [s]

Loading or unloading speed

Cycle no. load control

1

Force

200 kN

120

1.67 kN/s

2

Force

320 kN

180

1.78 kN/s

3

Force

420 kN

240

1.75 kN/s

4

Displacement

140 mm

480

0.29 mm/s

5

Displacement

200 mm

600

0.33 mm/s