Abstract
Quasi-brittleness is an important factor affecting the size effect of concrete, and the addition of steel fiber can effectively change this effect in concrete. The size effect on the fracture energy of steel fiber reinforced high-strength concrete was investigated in this paper. A total of 156 concrete single-edge notched beams (SENB) of various span-to-depth ratios, crack-to-depth ratios and steel fiber contents were tested to study the size effect of fracture energy of the high-strength concrete added steel fibers. The parameters of fracture in the boundary effect model (BEM) and size effect law (SEL) were deeply analyzed. The results show that the addition of steel fiber will generate significant influence on the parameter values obtained from both BEM and SEL. Based on the BEM, the relationship among Gf (experimental test fracture energy), gf (local fracture energy), and GF (fracture energy unaffected by specimen boundary) could be obtained. Thus, a method for analyzing the influence of steel fiber on GF was proposed using small-size SENB specimens at laboratory. In addition, based on the SEL, the impact of size effect on the fracture energy was effectively mitigated by the addition of steel fibers in high-strength concrete to a certain extent.
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Abbreviations
- a :
-
Initial crack length for notched specimens
- A :
-
The angular coefficient of the regression line
- A lig :
-
The area of the crack ligament
- \(a_l^*\) :
-
Boundary influence length
- B :
-
Width of the single-edge notched beam
- c f :
-
The effective length of FPZ
- E C :
-
Elasticity modulus of concrete
- f c :
-
Compressive strength of concrete
- f t :
-
Tensile strength of concrete
- FPZ:
-
Fracture process zone with crack bridging stress
- g :
-
Gravitational acceleration
- G f :
-
Experimental fracture energy
- g f :
-
Local fracture energy in the fracture process zone
- G F :
-
Fracture energy unaffected by specimen boundary
- G f :
-
Initial fracture energy
- K IC :
-
Fracture toughness of concrete
- L :
-
Length of the single-edge notched beam
- L ch :
-
Characteristic length
- m :
-
The relative width of the scatter band
- m 1 :
-
The mass of the notched specimen
- m 2 :
-
The mass of the loading device acting on the specimen
- P :
-
Ultimate load in the test recommended by RILEM
- P m :
-
Corrected ultimate load
- S :
-
Span of the specimen in the test
- SENB:
-
Single-edge notched beams
- SFC:
-
Steel fiber content
- W :
-
Depth of the single-edge notched beam
- W 0 :
-
The area enclosed by the load-deflection curve
- w A :
-
The variation coefficient of the slope
- w C :
-
The variation coefficient of the intercept
- α 0 :
-
Crack length-to-depth ratios =a/W
- δ 0 :
-
Maximum deflection of the specimen in the test
- σ N :
-
Nominal strength of the specimen in the test
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Acknowledgments
Financial supports from the Key Science and Technology Program of Henan Province, China (No. 202102310253), National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1904188) and the Science and Technology Project of Henan Provincial Department of Transportation, China (No. 2019J-2-13), are gratefully appreciated.
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Xu, P., Ma, J., Ding, Y. et al. Influences of Steel Fiber Content on Size Effect of the Fracture Energy of High-Strength Concrete. KSCE J Civ Eng 25, 948–959 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-021-0141-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-021-0141-7