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Hewa Wellalage Niroshan Wijerathna

Masters by Research

Project - Comparison of Mode I Fracture Energies Obtained from WST, TPBT and FPBT for Normal and Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete Mixes.

Based on the size of the Fracture Process Zone (FPZ), structural materials can be divided into three categories, brittle, quasi-brittle, and elastic-plastic. Concrete belongs to the quasi-brittle material category. In concrete, micro-cracks normally form prior to the application of external loads due to the loss of moisture starting during the early stages of curing. Such micro-cracks form larger cracks during loading that ultimately lead to the complete loss of strength and failure. Fracture mechanics is the science of studying the formation and propagation of cracks. The energy required to form a unit area of crack is defined as the fracture energy, which is also a mechanical property of the material. There is literature from 1950s on measuring the fracture energy of cementitious materials. There are different types of tests available from the literature to evaluate the fracture energy of cementitious materials, such as Wedge Splitting Test (WST), Three-Point Bending Test (TPBT), Four-Point Bending Test (FPBT), Compact Tension Test (CTT), and Uniaxial Tensile Test (UTT). The literature shows that the measured fracture energy of the same concrete material can significantly vary depending on the testing method. This study is aiming to develop a correlation between the fracture energy values derived from the most commonly utilized methods of measuring the fracture energy of concrete, namely WST, TPBT and FPBT. The current study more specifically focuses on Normal Strength Concrete (NSC), and Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete (SFRC)

Research Areas and Interests

  • High performance concrete and design of concrete structures
  • Construction technology
  • Analysis of steel structures

Qualifications

  • B.Sc. (Hons) in Civil Engineering Science, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka 2016
  • Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng), NER (Engineers Australia) 2025
  • International Professional Engineer (IntPE), The Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, 2021

Supervisors

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Hewa Wellalage Niroshan Wijerathna
School of Engineering
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