The SCB tests were conducted using the dynamic universal testing machine UTM-100, composed of the constant temperature incubator, loading platform, and servo controller. The selected loading mode was the three-point bending method. The specimens were set on beam support with a loading roller above and two support rollers beneath, all of which were 1 mm in diameter. The distance between the two support rollers was set to 0.8 times the specimen diameter. Before testing, a contact load of 0.2 kN was applied and held for 10 s to ensure uniform contact between the specimen and the loading roller. The test temperature was set to 15 °C, according to the annual temperature gradient variation of Hunan Province. A constant loading rate of 50 mm/min was maintained in the SCB strength tests until the cracking failure of the specimen. The tests stopped as the load dropped to 0.3 kN. The tensile strength of specimens can be determined by SCB tests with single loading. The maximum tensile stress at the bottom of the SCB specimen can be calculated with Equation (1). For the SCB fatigue tests, the loading was applied in the form of haversine waves at a frequency of 10 Hz. The stress levels were set at four different loading stress ratios (0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5), based on the SCB strength. For each stress level, three parallel tests were performed to ensure the reliability of the fatigue tests. The testing results in the figures represent an average result by parallel tests.
σt=4.976P/TD
Table 4 shows the SCB strength test results under the three different mixing proportions and different polymer contents. The polymer content represents the percentage of polymer binder in the PC by weight. The flexural strength of PC at different sand ratios varies significantly with polymer content. Overall, the flexural strength increases nonlinearly with the increasing polymer content, rapidly at first and then slowly. The main reason is that at low polymer content, the binder cannot completely coat the aggregate surface to develop sufficient interfacial strength. In this study, the flexural strength of PC was less affected by the sand ratio. When the sand ratio is 30%, the bending strengths of ER–PC and PU–PC peaked at 18.82 MPa and 15.24 MPa, respectively. The strength of ER–PC is higher than that of PU–PC, which is consistent with the physical test results of the polymers. As the sand ratio exceeds 30%, the flexural strength of the PC decreases. The main reason is that the excessively low sand ratio causes incompletely filled voids between coarse aggregates. At the same time, an excessive sand ratio reduces the amount of coarse aggregate and increases the total surface area of coarse and fine aggregates, leading to an increased amount of PU. As shown in Table 4, the variability of the strength test was small, with all coefficients of variation (CV) in the parallel tests below 10%. Therefore, considering the economy and design strength requirements, the sand ratio for the tests was determined to be 30%, and the initial admixture of the polymer was 15%.