PSI - Issue 43

Petr Miarka et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 43 (2023) 124–129 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2022) 000 – 000

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Fig. 3. Location of the studied  CT plane Y-Z plane (a) and (b) – the  CT tomography picture with the location of the crack.

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Fig. 4. Location of the studied  CT plane X - Y plane (a) and (b) – the  CT tomography picture with the location of the crack.

For better interpretation of the  CT images, the longitudinal direction goes with X -axis (plane X - Z ), the vertical direction goes along the Z -axis ( X - Y plane) and the transversal direction goes along the Y -axis (plane Y-Z ). These planes are schematically shown in Fig. 2(a) – Fig. 4(a). The localized damage, i.e. a crack, in the material’s structure ca n be observed at the location at approx. 40 mm from the notch in the vertical direction. This crack is marked with red arrow in Fig. 2 – Fig. 4. Localized crack connects set of pores and overcomes the coarse aggregate, which in this case indicates higher mechanical properties than surrounding cement matrix. This phenomenon can be observed again in the transversal direction, where it connects multiple pores inside the sample’s microstructure as well as on the sample’s surface (see Fig. 3(b) and Fig. 4(b)). This