**Energy Evolution Analysis and Brittleness Evaluation of High-Strength Concrete Considering the Whole Failure Process**

### **Ruihe Zhou 1,\* , Hua Cheng 1,2, Mingjing Li <sup>1</sup> , Liangliang Zhang <sup>1</sup> and Rongbao Hong <sup>1</sup>**


Received: 23 October 2020; Accepted: 27 November 2020; Published: 30 November 2020

**Abstract:** In this work, we aimed to solve the problems that exist in the brittleness evaluation method of high-strength concrete through a triaxial compression test of C60 and C70 high-strength concrete. Then, the relationship between the energy evolution of its elastic energy, dissipative energy, pre-peak total energy and additional energy and its axial strain, confining pressure, and concrete strength grade was analyzed. Taking the accumulation rate of pre-peak elastic strain energy and the dissipation rate of dissipative energy, and the release rate of post-peak elastic energy, as the evaluation indicators to characterize the brittleness of high-strength concrete. A brittleness evaluation method that reflects the whole failure process of high-strength concrete is proposed and verified by experiments. The results show that with the increase of the confining pressure, the proportion of elastic energy in the whole process of high-strength concrete failure gradually decreases. The storage rate of pre-peak elastic energy and the release rate of post-peak elastic energy are gradually reducing, the brittleness index gradually decreases, and the confining pressure inhibits the brittleness of high-strength concrete. Under the same confining pressure, the brittleness index of C70 concrete is greater than that of C60 concrete, which indicates that, with the increase of the strength grade, the brittleness level of concrete gradually increases and the ductility decreases. These findings have a certain theoretical significance for the scientific design of high-strength concrete structures and the improvement of their safety in the future.

**Keywords:** high-strength concrete; energy evolution; elastic strain energy; brittleness evaluation index
