On the fracture parameters of heavy-weight magnetite concrete with different water-cement ratios through three methods

Abstract

In this research, in order to study the effect of different water to cement ratios (w/c = 0.4–0.7) on the fracture characteristics of Heavy-weight concrete (HWC), three-point bending tests were performed on 224 notched beams. Then, the fracture parameters were analyzed by Work of Fracture Method (WFM), Size Effect Method (SEM) and Boundary Effect Method (BEM). The results show that water to cement ratio significantly affects fracture parameters of HWC. The reduction of w/c also decreases the fracture surface, size of the crack tip plasticity zone, length of the fracture process zone (Cf) in SEM and the characteristic length (Lch) in WFM.