The impact of water to cement ratio on the fracture behavior of rubberized concrete

Abstract

In the failure mechanism of concrete, its cracking behavior is an essential issue. Application of light and recycled materials such as crumb rubber can change the cracking behavior of concrete. The fracture behavior of rubberized concrete beams with varying water to cement ratios (WCR) of 0.35 to 0.55 was assessed in this investigation. Fracture parameters were achieved through WFM (work of fracture method) and SEM (size effect method). The findings revealed that with the reduction of the WCR, effective crack tip opening displacement at the peak load and the length of the fracture process zone in SEM and characteristic length in WFM decreased, while brittleness number, initial fracture energy and fracture toughness in SEM and the total fracture energy in WFM increased. Furthermore, for rubberized concrete containing different WCRs, the GF/Gf ratio was approximately 2.44.