Comparative Fracture Properties of Four Fibre Reinforced High Performance Cementitious Composites

This study investigates the fracture properties of high performance cementitious composites (HPCC) with four different types of fibres and with volume fraction content 3%. The four fibres are steel hooked end (S), polypropylene crimped (PP), basalt chopped (B), and glass (G) fibres. The tests were carried out in accordance with the RILEM recommendations. In order to examine the fresh properties of HPCC the slump flow tests were performed. Twelve fibre reinforced HPCC beam specimens with notch were cast and tested using central point loading experiments. In addition, experimental tests of the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength were carried out. The test results made it possible to obtain representative fracture parameters, such as the equivalent strengths, residual strengths, and fracture energy of fibre reinforced HPCC. The S fibre specimens showed the best performance in terms of workability, compressive strength, tensile splitting strength, and fracture energy at large deflection. On the other hand, G fibre specimens exhibited the best performance in terms of flexural strength, equivalent flexural strength at higher deflection, and residual flexural strength at lower deflection. In terms of equivalent flexural strength at lower deflection and residual flexural strength at higher deflection, basalt fibre specimens performed the best. On the contrary, polypropylene fibre reinforced beam specimens revealed the highest deflection capacity.