The mechanical characterization of plain foamed concrete (PFC) and fiber-reinforced foamed concrete (FRFC) with a density of 700 kg/m3 was performed with compression and tension tests. FRFC was reinforced with the natural fiber henequen (untreated or alkaline-treated) at volume fractions of 0.5%, 1% and 1.5%. Polypropylene fiber reinforcement was also used as a reference. For all FRFCs, the inclusion of the fibers enhanced the compressive and tensile strengths and plastic behavior, which was attributed to the increase of specimen integrity. Under compressive loading, after the peak strength, there was no considerable loss in strength and a plateau-like regime was observed. Under tensile loading, the fibers significantly increased the tensile strength of the FRFCs and prevented a sudden failure of the specimens, which was in contrast to the brittle behavior of the PFC. The tensile behavior enhancement was higher when treated henequen fibers were used, which was attributed to the increase in the fiber–matrix bond produced by the alkaline treatment. The microscopic characterization showed that the inclusion of fibers did not modify the air-void size and its distribution. Higher energy absorption was observed for FRFCs when compared to the PFC, which was attributed to the enhanced toughness and ductility by the fibers. The results presented herein warrant further research of FRFC with natural henequen fibers for engineering applications.

Progressive collapse deformation mechanisms in Rohacell‐51WF foam during uniaxial compression has been studied. Measures of a macroscopic engineering strain are identified. The elastic and plastic parts of a macroscopic engineering strain can be predicted by using the compression failure strain, lock‐up strain, and time dependent elastic and plastic parts of lock‐up strain, which are material parameters. Identification of strain measures in a uniaxial compression test is essential to get material parameters for an elastoplastic model. The viscoelastic recovery property of Rohacell‐51WF foam is also described.

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The theoretical foundation of Youngdahl’s correlation parameters, which have been used to eliminate pulse shape effects in the dynamic plastic response of two-dimensional structural members, is studied in the present paper with the aid of bounds obtained for a rigid-plastic material. It is shown that Youngdahl’s empirical estimate for the structural response time is, in general, a lower bound on the actual response time. A lower bound expression is obtained for the maximum final displacement of a two-dimensional structural member when subjected to an axisymmetrically loaded transverse time-dependent pulse, which depends only on Youngdahl’s correlation parameters, and offers a theoretical foundation for the validity of Youngdahl’s correlation parameter method.

Strain growth is a phenomenon observed in the elastic