Simulation of fatigue stiffness degradation in prestressed concrete beams under cyclic loading

In order to investigate and research the fatigue cracking of prestressed concrete fatigue properties and loading and stiffness degeneration process, cyclic loading tests were carried out on six prestressed concrete beams and the stiffness degradation under fatigue was investigated. A simulation model of stiffness degradation is proposed based on the stiffness analysis of the fatigue-damaged section. The elastic modulus of damaged concrete and the effective residual area of steel were introduced as well as an adjusted three-stage concrete fatigue damage evolution model. The strip method was used to analyze concrete damage due to changing stress along the depth of the beam section. The simulation and test results were compared and a method of predicting fatigue deflection was presented based on the simulation model. The predicted results were compared with that of the neural network method. It is in good agreement for the simulation results with the test results. It is only less than 5% error for the simulation model which can reveal the two-stage degradation of prestressed concrete beams under cyclic loading. It is more precise for the simulation prediction method under proper conditions.