Fracture behaviour of plain and fiber-reinforced concrete with different water content under mixed mode loading

In the present paper, plain concrete and fiber-reinforced concrete are considered from the point of view of the mechanical characteristics, with particular emphasis on the fracture resistance, for different values of the water/cement ratio and different amount and type (metallic or polymeric) of reinforcing fibers. The main mechanical characteristics (such as compressive strength and tensile strength) of the examined materials have experimentally been determined, and several pre-cracked specimens have been tested under three-point bending up to the final failure in order to study the fracture behaviour by also evaluating the fracture energy. Furthermore, the crack paths for static tests under displacement control have been obtained, and the load–displacement deflection curves have been determined for different crack configurations. Assuming the fracture surface characterised by a fractal dimension, some quantitative evaluations of the fracture energy are carried out. Then, the fracture behaviour and the post-peak behaviour of plain and fiber-reinforced specimens are discussed, and the effects of reinforcing fibers are quantified. Some conclusions are finally drawn.