Determination of size-independent specific fracture energy of normal- and high-strength self-compacting concrete from wedge splitting tests

Abstract

Wedge splitting tests have been conducted on two different self-compacting concretes (normal- and high-strength) and the size-dependent fracture energy Gf determined from the measured RILEM work of fracture. Then the specific size-independent fracture energy, GF, has been determined using the boundary effect (BE) method of Hu and Wittmann and the simplified boundary effect (SBE) method proposed by Abdalla and Karihaloo. Tests on specimens of three different sizes and four different relative notch depths have shown that a unique value of GF can be obtained irrespective of the specimen size and relative notch depth. The results by both the BE and SBE methods are in very good agreement. A comparison with previous results from Abdalla and Karihaloo for normal- and high-strength vibrated concretes tested under the same conditions in the same laboratory shows that the SCC has a lower specific size-independent fracture energy than the vibrated concrete of the same strength.