Investigating the Impacts of Various Fracture Mechanics Approaches on the Fracture Parameters of Plain and Hybrid Fiber Reinforced High-Performance Concrete

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Civil Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

2 Civil Engineering Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, IRAN.

10.22124/jcr.2025.28961.1680

Abstract

The complexity of relationships and the presentation of various methods are among the main challenges of fracture mechanics of concrete. These challenges have limited the practical application of this science in examining and analyzing concrete structures. As a result, examining and comparing the various parameters of these methods on the fracture behavior of different concretes is very important. In this research, six widely used methods of fracture mechanics, such as work-of-fracture method (WFM), size effect method (SEM), boundary effect method (BEM), stress-displacement curve method (SDCM), the proposed ASTM E1290 standard method, and the Bower fracture model (BFM), were compared and analyzed to examine two main criteria of fracture mechanics, including fracture energy and fracture toughness in high-performance concrete (without fibers and reinforced with hybrid fibers). The results show that the fracture energy and fracture toughness responses in all these methods increased with the addition of fibers to high-performance concrete. Among these, the fracture toughness factor obtained from the ASTM E1290 method showed the smallest increase, at 6.8%, with the addition of fibers to high-performance concrete. Both WFM and SDCM showed more suitable fracture energy results for hybrid fiber-reinforced high-performance concrete. Compared to other methods, SEM and BEM are more suitable for determining the fracture energy of high-performance concrete without fibers due to their high accuracy, simplicity, and lack of parameter dependency on sample dimensions. Additionally, the fracture toughness parameter ratios in the SEM, BEM, BFM, and ASTM are approximately equal to 1.7.

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Main Subjects

References

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