Fracture and Size Effect Studies on Self Compacting Concrete

When the large quantity of heavy reinforcement is to be placed in a concrete member, particularly at beam column joint, it is necessary to ensure that the formwork gets completely filled with normally vibrated concrete (NVC). This problem can now be solved with Self Compacting Concrete (SCC). This type of concrete flows easily around the reinforcement also, into the all corners of the formwork without the requirement of vibration. This book describes fracture behaviour of SCC. Preparation of geometrically similar plain and fiber reinforced self-compact concrete specimens are explained herein. This book also contains the testing procedure by Three Point Bending (TPB) test setup using closed loop servo controlled testing machine under Crack Mouth Opening Displacement (CMOD) control. The non-linear fracture mechanics parameters are determined using the Bazant's size effect method. It is hoped that the experimental test result acquired will be helpful to the construction industry to realize post-pick behaviour of plain and fiber reinforced self compacting concrete.