Correlating Flexural and Shear Toughness of Lightweight Fiber-Reinforced Concrete

Assessing the correlation of shear toughness and flexural toughness of lightweight and normalweight fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) was the study purpose. Throughout the study, a crimped steel fiber was used which had a crescent geometry. Per ASTM C1609, third-point loading tests were performed for flexure. Per a JSCE-G 553-1999 procedure (modified version), direct shear tests were performed for shear. The JSCE-G 552-1999 procedure and post-crack strengths method were used to analyze flexural load-deflection curves. Similar approaches were used to analyze shear load-deflection curves. That normalweight FRC is superior to its lightweight counterpart in terms of flexural and shear toughness characteristics for a given fiber type and volume fraction is indicated by results. For a given FRC, there also appears to be a good flexural and shear toughness correlation.