On the tensile behaviour of thermally-damaged concrete

The mechanical properties of thermally-damaged concrete have been the subject of many investigations in the last fifty years. Nonetheless, a noteworthy impulse in this field has been promoted in recent times by the advent of high-performance concrete, because the wide range of materials at issue makes the well-established references difficult to be generalized. This is particularly true for the tensile response, due to the challenging experimental conditions and to the still not standardized test methods. In this paper the results collected by the authors on a number of different concrete mixes are drawn together with the twofold objective to clarify the relations among the most common direct- and indirect-testing techniques and to sketch any possible general trend in the tensile properties of ordinary and special concretes exposed to high temperature.