Steel fiber reinforced concrete tensile testing with eliminated lateral wall effect

Abstract

AbstractA test rig and a novel experimental procedure are introduced and qualified to obtain realistic tensile strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete specimen with supercritical fiber contents from direct tensile tests. To eliminate the wall effect an optimal shape is found employing the method of tension triangles that ensures uniformly distributed stresses throughout. By water jet cutting an initially rectangular casted specimen is tapered at the center. The resulting bone‐shaped specimen replicates the true manufacturing conditions of the component regarding fiber distribution and orientation. Accuracy of load introduction and surface quality are monitored tracking eccentricities and slip. Both are found strictly limited and without impact on the maximum experimental residual tensile strength of 2.87 MPa on average with a low scatter of 15%. Employing flexural bending tests from the same concrete batch, a conversion factor to the direct tensile test of β = 0.38 was found for the first time.