Assessment of the Specimen Size Effect on the Fracture Energy of Macro-Synthetic-Fiber-Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

The most frequently used construction material in buildings is concrete exhibiting a brittle behaviour. Adding fibers to concrete can improve its ductility and mechanical properties. To this end, a laboratory study was conducted to present an experimental model for the specimens’ size effect of on macro-synthetic fiber-reinforced concrete using variations in fracture energy. Composite concrete beams with different thicknesses and widths were made and tested under mode I to obtain (1) fracture toughness, (2) fracture energy, and (3) critical stress intensity factor values. Results indicated that by increasing the thickness and the width, fracture toughness and fracture energy were enhanced. Moreover, increasing the thickness and width of the beam led to critical stress intensity factors enhancement respectively by 35.01–41.43% and 7.77–8.09%.

The effect of beam width and crack-depth ratio on mode I fracture toughness of RCB: an experimental and numerical study

“…9 gives the behavior of K 1C , where K 1C increases as the a/d ratio increases, similar to the results found in the literature [3,4]. Furthermore, the value of K 1C increases as the b expands, as found in [17]. The load-deflection curves depicted in Figs.…”

“…Researchers have suggested that reflective cracks are primarily a result of a combination of Mode I and Mode II fracture, or Mixed-Mode fracture under the applied stress that the three-point bending beam test is appropriate for evaluating fractures. A study conducted by Daneshfar, M., and Hassani [17] investigated the effect of adding short fibers to concrete. They conducted experiments to analyze the effects of specimen dimensions on synthetic FRC.…”