article · International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
Investigation into the fracture behaviour of steel fibre-reinforced recycled aggregate concrete involved testing thirty-three notched simply supported beams under three-point bending conditions. By altering the proportion of recycled aggregate, changes in mechanical and fracture performance were measured. The findings demonstrate that recycled aggregate concrete reinforced with steel fibres achieves performance and fracture characteristics comparable to standard concrete. Introducing steel fibres significantly enhances fracture properties across diverse mixes and reduces material brittleness as fibre volume rises. Key measured parameters included displacement, ultimate load, fracture toughness, crack mouth opening displacement, modulus of elasticity, characteristic length, and fracture energy. Linear regression confirmed high accuracy in predicting mechanical strength, while the work-of-fracture approach proved most reliable for evaluating fracture energy.
Concrete production relies heavily on virgin aggregates, which places high demands on natural resources. Demonstrating that recycled aggregates combined with steel fibres perform similarly to standard concrete supports the reuse of construction waste. Understanding crack resistance and fracture mechanics ensures that structures built with recycled materials maintain necessary structural integrity, safety, and durability.
This laboratory-scale study provides baseline mechanical and fracture data for construction material developers and structural engineers considering recycled aggregate concrete reinforced with steel fibres. Because testing was limited to thirty-three notched beam specimens under bending tests, the research is at an early experimental stage. Practical commercial adoption would require further structural testing, standardisation, and validation under operational field conditions before use in commercial construction products.
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Abstract Fracture parameters of fiber concrete (FC) are currently a hot research area. Fracture mechanics is the field of solid mechanics that helps to study the type and propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of calculating the driving force on a crack and characterizes the material's resistance to fracture. Behavioral characteristics are determined by crack mouth opening displacement and the load–deflection method. This research identifies the fracture parameters of 33 notched simply supported beams made by recycled aggregate cement concrete with steel fiber. The recycled aggregate ratio in concrete has been altered to determine the effect on the mechanical and fracture properties. For determining fracture parameters, a 3-point bending single-edge notched fracture test was used. The results indicated that the steel fiber-reinforced concrete made with recycled aggregate showed similar performance and fracture characteristics compared to normal concrete. Thus, adding steel fibers to various concrete mixes considerably improved the fracture characteristics, while the brittleness was reduced with increased steel fiber content. Linear regression analysis also showed the accuracy of mechanical strength results as the value of R-square was close to unity. Displacement, ultimate load, brittleness (B), fracture toughness ( K IC ), crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD), fracture energy ( G F ), modulus of elasticity ( E ), and characteristic length ( l ch ), were determined for both conventional and recycled aggregate specimens. The “work of fracture"—by definition the formula—is the most reliable to calculate the fracture energy as the nonlinearity is related to the performance of FC.
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DOI: 10.1186/s40069-023-00637-w
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